Scientists will be engaged in growing cosmic carrots

Russian scientists will develop a new greenhouse for growing carrots on the International Space Station, whose performance will be 70 grams per day.

The Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences began the development of a new greenhouse for growing carrots on the ISS. IMBP RAS specialists have already begun work aimed at creating a production module of the space greenhouse for the conveyor cultivation of this tasty and healthy root vegetables.

Carrots are planned to grow with a capacity of about 70 grams per day, which corresponds to the average weight of one specimen. But for this, it is still necessary to develop an intelligent LED luminaire to automatically determine the optimal lighting conditions for crops of various plants in the space greenhouse. According to the RSC Energia technical assignment, it is planned to manufacture the Research Institute of Space Instrumentation together with the Institute of Physics and Mathematics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, an experimental sample of the Vitazkl-T vitamin space greenhouse.

The space greenhouse is intended for the experimental testing of conveyor-growing modes of lettuce plants and will allow to satisfy the needs of one crew member for vitamins A and C and partially for the vitamins of group B and coarse dietary fibers. In the future, these structures and technologies can provide a design basis for creating a production greenhouse as part of a life support system for an orbital near-moon station and even a passenger Martian ship.