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The Plant Research Unit: An International Space Station HabitatThe Plant Research Unit (PRU) is one of six life science habitats being developed as part of the Space Station Biological Research Program. The PRU is designed for experiments in microgravity and will utilize the ISS Centrifuge Facility to provide gravity levels between microgravity and 29. The PRU will provide and control all aspects of a plant s needs in a nearly closed system. In other words, the shoot and root environments will not be open to the astronaut s environment except for experiment maintenance such as planting, harvesting and plant sampling. This also means that all lighting, temperature and humidity control, "watering," and air filtering and cleaning .must be done within strict limitations of volume, weight, power, and crew time while at the same time providing a very high level of reliability and a service life in excess of 10 years. The PRU will contain two plant chambers 31.5 cm tall, each with independent control of temperature, humidity, light level and photoperiod, CO2 level, nutrient and water delivery, and video and data acquisition. The PRU is currently in the preliminary design phase and a number of subsystem components have been prototyped for testing, including the temperature and humidity control systems, the plant chambers, the LED lighting system, the atmospheric control system and a variety of nutrient delivery systems. The LED prototype provides independent feedback control of 5 separate spectral bands and variable output between 0 and 1000 micro-mol sq m/sec. The water and nutrient delivery system (WNDS) prototypes have been used to test particulate based, thin film, and gel-based WNDS configurations.
Document ID
20030063915
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Morrow, Robert
(Orbital Technologies Corp. Madison, WI, United States)
Reiss-Bubenheim, Debra
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Schaefer, Ronald L.
(Lockheed Martin Corp. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Subject Category
Space Sciences (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Society for Plant Biology
Location: Honolulu, HI
Country: United States
Start Date: July 25, 2003
End Date: July 30, 2003
Sponsors: American Society for Plant Biology
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS2-1463
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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