Internship proposal 2021 – Set up an open-source automated farming system

When space missions include humans, it is necessary to set up a life support system (LSS). Future space missions (e.g. colonization of Mars) are expected to involve longer distances and durations. For such missions, resupply from Earth is too expensive (or even impossible for a one-way trip) both in terms of energy and time, and it therefore becomes necessary to design bioregenerative LSS [3]. This is why the implementation of such systems is of interest to ESA: “For more than 30 years, the European Space Agency (i.e. ESA) is active in the field of regenerative life support system. MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) is the European project of circular life support system. It was established to gain knowledge on regenerative system, aiming to the highest degree of autonomy and consequently to produce food, water and oxygen from mission wastes.”1. Growing plants in space, in addition to providing fresh food for astronauts, makes it possible to mitigate “stress effects from long-duration space travel” [6]. This is also a subject of interest since research does not exclude that it is possible to grow plants on the Moon and Mars [11]. For the European Space Agency (ESA), “cultivating plants for food was a significant step in the history of mankind. Growing plants for food in space and on other planets will be necessary for exploration of our Universe”2.