MOSCOW, 7 Jun. SibFU researchers have proposed the design of interplanetary station modules that will be able to supply astronauts with an important product from the recommended diet — mushrooms. According to scientists, the farm they have developed will provide the most efficient yield per 1 sq. m of sown area. The results are published in Heliyon.
One of the big problems of modern astronautics is the need to constantly supply astronauts with food. According to experts, most often this issue is solved by the delivery of ready-made food from Earth: each crew member needs an average of about one and a half kilograms of food per day.
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However, the farther from the planet the astronauts are, the more time and effort goes into their life support, experts noted. Therefore, the task of equipping farms with plant foods is relevant not only for flights to the nearest space objects, but also for longer trips. 2040 plans to build basic infrastructure on the moon. The arrangement of a habitable space station implies the construction of a room for growing food directly on board.
To date, one of the most promising concepts for supporting astronauts during missions at manned stations is the use of a bioregenerative life support system. Experts explained that it provides the possibility of long-term autonomous living for people by processing plant or animal waste into an environment for growing other food.
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Scientists from the Siberian Federal University (SFU), together with colleagues from the Institute of Biophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have developed a project for a farm where it is possible to effectively cultivate oyster mushrooms.
These are mushrooms that contain a large amount of protein and some vitamins. They are unpretentious, and the cultivation technology is quite simple and feasible without violating sanitary and hygienic standards. These mushrooms also contain a significant amount of antioxidants that soften the impact of charged particles on astronauts.
“The farm includes two modules connected to a greenhouse. In the first module, the plant material (substrate) is prepared for growing oyster mushrooms. The second module is used for sowing mushrooms on a plant substrate placed in cultivation vessels, and obtaining a crop in the form of fruiting bodies,» explained co-author of the publication, associate professor of the Department of Biophysics of the Siberian Federal University Sergey Trifonov.
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According to him, straw, which is formed after threshing wheat grown in greenhouses at the station, can be used as a substrate. In general, any non-food plant waste can serve as a substrate for oyster mushrooms, however, depending on their nature, the growth of fungi will have a different rate.
The university emphasized that the efficient use of the area of any space station is a key design factor. Therefore, the researchers presented a calculation of the productivity of the farm they designed, depending on three parameters: the volume of the cultivation vessel, the density of the substrate and the number of harvested waves of oyster mushroom fruiting, and also calculated the rate of processing of the nutrient substrate into fertilizers for plants.
As a result, we managed to find the optimal ratio of all conditions under which the yield of fresh oyster mushrooms from 1 square. m of the fruiting chamber is 311 grams per day.
One technological cycle for growing oyster mushrooms lasts 66 days. When the farm is fully loaded, it is necessary to use 86 kg of plant waste as a substrate, from which 28 kg of mushrooms can be obtained in two months. This will satisfy the needs of 14 crew members.
«It should be borne in mind that the physical conditions on the Moon and Earth are significantly different: on the Moon, gravity is about 6 times less and there is no dipole magnetic field. It is necessary to test the cultivation of oyster mushrooms using climatic small cameras on the Moon,» Trifonov said.
He added that the data obtained during the study can become a starting point for developing a technology for growing oyster mushrooms on a lunar farm.
SibFU is a member of the Priority-2030 state support program for Russian universities.