Engineering Papers⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Gioia Massa

Publications and source records attributed to Gioia Massa.

At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space, Veggie, and Space Crop Production

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plant Habitat 04 Citizen Outreach: The Space Chile Grow a Pepper Plant Challenge (2020-2021)

The Space Chile Grow a Pepper Plant Challenge (SCGAPPC) is a citizen outreach activity performed in conjunction with NASA technical demonstration, Plant Habitat (PH)-04 which grew a New Mexico chile pepper as the first fruit in the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH). Growing a related pepper variety from Chimayo, New Mexico, the activity tasked citizen “Space Farmers” to grow a pepper plant indoors, at home, or in controlled environments to document the details of growth, and search for solutions to growing consistently productive and flavorful peppers under these conditions. Launched in February of 2020, a scientist on the PH04 team shared an introduction on social media to provide information about the activity and instructions on how to participate. Each space farmer received an envelopecontaining seeds and a mission sticker. They conducted their own pepper growth trials to record environment and horticultural data and submit one pepper to the University of New Mexico for capsaicin analysis. This activity was available online at the onset of the COVID-19 shutdown. During 2020-2021, over 1,800 envelopes were mailed across the globe, tens of thousands of seed pouches were shared, the SCGAPPC was featured during a virtual Growing Beyond Earth Educator Workshop with the challenge of becoming a critical part of that program when students were working remotely. Citizen space farmers around the world contributed to space biology and crop production research while learning about CE agriculture. Members of the space biology community volunteered participation, skills, and interaction. An online community page provided a format for scientists, and the general publicto interact. A portion of data was documented in an online database. The primary outcome served to inform the publicabout NASA space crop production, while creating a channel to share experiences and compare results from a singlecrop growing under varying controlled environments.

Jacob Torres↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space, Veggie, and Space Crop Production

Presentation to visiting student group. As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Crop Production Controlled Environments

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from Earth. Ohalo III is a new capability being developed that will pull from both Veggie and APH as we transition from research approaches to an operational space crop production system to enable human exploration of the moon and Mars.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Crop Production

An educational outreach talk on crop production for teachers and students.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space, Veggie, and Space Crop Production

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluating Microgreens Crop Readiness for Space Production.

Microgreens are small-size, nutrient-rich, and fast-grown crops, which are considered as candidates for future space exploration missions. In particular, the ISS, the Lunar Gateway, and Mars and Lunar missions could benefit from growing microgreens to supplement astronaut diets in the near future. Research at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has focused on (1) the selection of microgreens compatible species, (2) the evaluation of microgreens food safety, (3) the use of passive wicking, on-demand watering, and hydroponics cultivation, (4) simulated microgravity growth, (5) microgreen canopy gas exchange, and (6) harvesting techniques in microgravity. This presentation summarizes this research. Microgreen species will be evaluated for their yield in relationship to the quantity of inputs – water, seeds, substrate, light intensity, photoperiod, crew time – required for their growth; for their organoleptic and sensory factors in order to down select species that are highly acceptable for humans; and for their microbial loads as detected in their growth environment and the food safety metrics of their edible tissue. Passive wicking, on-demand watering, and hydroponic systems are being studied as an efficient way to deliver essential nutrients and water to microgreens, included in a microgravity environment. Growth studies in simulated microgravity (using 3-dimensional clinostats) will assess microgreens growth relative to that in 1g. Gas exchange studies on microgreens canopies in various airflows will assess their photosynthesis and transpiration. Finally, a series of parabolic flights has enabled the evaluation of different harvesting and bagging techniques in microgravity. Indeed, traditional plant harvesting methods (scissors) in microgravity could generate significant microgreen debris in the space station cabin. Two innovative techniques, coupled to a dedicated bagging method, were designed and evaluated against the control, traditional, harvesting technique. This research was supported by grants from NASA KSC’s Independent Research and Technology Development Program, NASA’s Flight Opportunity Program, NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowships (L.P. & C.J.) supported by NASA’s Space Biology program, and support from NASA’s Human Research Program.

crop↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

3D Printed Materials Characterization for Rapid Prototyping and Plant Growth

Space Biology experimentation but their effects during plant growth and sanitation have not been documented. With further testing we can determine how certain 3D printed materials affect our plants. The way we tested germination included laying two pieces of germination paper down with the printed petri dish insert of the various material and 14 seeds of Outrageous lettuce to fit in the holes of the insert. We kept an even moisture in all parts by wrapping the petri dishes in two layers of parafilm tape. This project tests over 15 different materials to document performance during plant growth scenarios. This research will not only help space biology but also citizens who use these materials to understand the potential of leaching and ill effects. 3D printing is a recent generally accessed technology with new materials coming out every day. It is important to understand how materials could impact the way the plants grow, and the safety of the food grown. As we continue testing these materials, we will also test engineering properties like tension and elasticity. We have a microbiology team working on this project as well to test biofilm formation. From the germination tests we have completed we have seen little impact on germination rate of these seeds. However, some parts absorb moisture. An ideal material is one that doesn’t leach chemicals or microplastics, can withstand high tension and compression, and doesn’t promote microbial growth. This work is funded by NASA. M. Gandhi was funded by MAIANSE.

Mily Gandhi↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space, Veggie, and Space Crop Production

Standard education and outreach talk. As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a packaged diet to provide additional nutrients and dietary variety for astronauts. Several unique challenges exist for the growth of plants in microgravity and on other planetary surfaces. Testing within the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space and Space Crop Production

A standard education and outreach overview presentation of plants in space and crop production testing with Veggie and APH. Presentation will be given to visiting Japanese High School Students. Slide 14 of presentation contains a video.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space, Veggie, and Space Crop Production

An updated outreach talk to the Connecticut Space Grant Consortium and associated classrooms. As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance, and crop production can supplement a packaged diet. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space, Veggie, and Space Crop Production

As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance, and crop production can supplement a packaged diet. Testing with the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, and food acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from our blue home planet.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Plants in Space and Space Crop Production

A short education talk for an ISS downlink speakers bureau event to be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal School in Jupiter, Florida. The event is for 4th graders and their families.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Controlled Environment Agriculture on the International Space Station

This presentation will discuss NASA’s Space Crop Production vision and introduce the crop plant research and production capabilities on the International Space Station, Veggie and the Advanced Plant Habitat. I will highlight the different crop production research that has been conducted in these facilities and discuss how these projects contribute to NASA’s goals and needs.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Crop Production

An outreach talk to kickoff the 2023-2024 Growing Beyond Earth School Year.

Gioia Massa↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Understanding Plant Nitrogen Form Preference Responses to Elevated CO2 Earth and Spaceflight Cabin Environments.

Future long-duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and beyond will require a sustainable supply of food to support human crews. The spaceflight cabin environment often contains very high concentrations of CO2, and it is therefore crucial to understand plant responses to elevated CO2 (eCO2) environments. Much focus has been given to plant photosynthetic and performance parameters in response to eCO2, but studies on the effects of eCO2 on nitrogen uptake are poorly understood. Our previous work at The University of Sheffield, UK using novel stable isotope approaches has shown enhanced ammonium uptake and preference compared to nitrate at eCO2 in varieties of spring barley, hypothesised to be an indirect consequence of changes in photosynthesis and photorespiration. However, several varieties did not display altered preference under eCO2 and the universality of this response remains to be understood. In this NASA NPP project, several candidate crop species such as lettuce, radish and tomato will be screened using stable isotopes to assess whether N preference changes in favor of ammonium in response to eCO2 and whether this remains true at super-elevated CO2 (seCO2), which is often experienced on the ISS. Photosynthetic and related measurements will help to disentangle the relationship between these responses and photosynthesis. This work will enable the development of optimized nutrient regimes for candidate crops in space and in future Lunar and Martian habitats and will pave the way for selection of crop varieties adapted to an eCO2 and/or seCO2 environment. Moreover, this research will further our understanding of plant responses to the eCO2 environment brought about by climate change, allowing the development of future-proof crops that will help to maintain food security. This NPP Fellowship is funded by NASA Space Biology.

space plant biology↗