Astro Garden technology builds on SNC’s extensive experience with space-based plant growth systems and technology built over several years in conjunction with NASA. Astronauts have been relying on and utilising SNC technologies to grow lettuce, cabbage and zinnia flowers successfully on the International Space Station since 2015.
Leveraging its proven microgravity plant growth systems, SNC developed Astro Garden – its largest and most advanced plant growth system to date. Astro Garden consumes less power and requires less volume and maintenance.
Astro Garden utilises a combination of red, blue and white LEDs to provide the necessary lighting nutrients (compensating for the lack of sunlight in space), while the VEGGIE system uses red, blue and green LED lights.
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Tom Crabb, vice president of SNC’s propulsion and environmental systems business unit, said, “Our goal is to provide astronauts with fresh produce that provides essential micronutrients that may not be available in current food options. We’d eventually like to see Astro Garden growing berries, beans and other antioxidant-rich foods.”
SNC continues to conduct plant testing with the ultimate objective for Astro Garden to provide diet supplementation and a source of recreation for space crews to improve habitability.
Principal scientist at SNC Dr Robert Morrow added, “Advancing Astro Garden technology provides us with a new tool for testing operational-scale vegetable production systems designed for use in space habitats.”
SNC used its aeroponics technology to grow the tomatoes at its Madison, Wisconsin, facility as a part of NASA’s NextSTEP (Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships), a public-private partnership model that seeks commercial development of deep space exploration capabilities to support more extensive human spaceflight missions in space, including low-Earth orbit and the moon.
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Owned by chairwoman and president Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen, SNC is a leader in solving the world’s toughest challenges through best-of-breed, open architecture engineering in space systems, commercial solutions, and national security and defence.
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