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The Autonomous Garden Pod (AG-Pod) is a modular crop production system that can lower the equivalent system mass (ESM) for bioregenerative life support systems. AG-Pod combines existing technologies, many of which are at the technology readiness level (“TRL”) 8 or 9, into a flight-ready system adaptable to many needs from Space Station microgravity plant research to interplanetary transit and planetary surface food production systems. The plant-rated module resides external to the spacecraft pressurized volume and can use natural direct solar illumination. This reduces the ESM of crop production systems by eliminating the use of spacecraft internal pressurized volume and by reducing power and heat rejection resources that would be needed for full artificial lighting. However, lowering of the crop production ESM is also achieved from the use of lightweight structures including composite and inflatable technology.

Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air/mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate media. Aeroponics has contributed to advances in several areas of study including root morphology, nutrient uptake, drought and flood stress, and responses to variations in oxygen and/or carbon dioxide root zone concentrations. The adaptability of the aeroponic process that has benefited researchers makes its application to spaceflight plant growth systems appealing. Greater control of growth parameters permits a greater range of crop performance throttling and the elimination of aggregates or common growth substrates lowers system mass, lessens disease propagation between plants, and can decrease the required crew time for both planting and harvesting.

Technology for microgravity plant growth has matured to a level which allows detailed gravitational plant biology and commercial plant biotechnology studies. Consequently, plants have been shown to adapt to the space flight environment, which validates their use in advanced life support applications. However, the volume available for plant growth inside pressurized modules is severely constrained, both in present and future spacecraft. Furthermore, the required power and heat rejection associated with the artificial lighting on existing systems, and the resulting weight and volume increases, affect the viability of these systems for life support. The Autonomous Garden Pod (AG-Pod), an inflatable module specifically for plants, resides outside the habitable modules and uses passive solar illumination. It’s based on existing technologies including flight-proven plant growth subsystems, commercial satellite thermal systems, and off-the-shelf inflatable technology.