Modeling and Trade Studies of Staged Production Scenarios in Bioregenerative Life Support Systems

This study investigates the impacts of staged planting on the apparent quantum yield of beet stands. Experiments were conducted with both staged and batch planted beet in full canopy sealed environment chambers under fixed environmental (light, CO₂, temperature) conditions. Empirical results indicated a higher average apparent quantum yield than that of the batch planted stand. Observed increases in quantum yield were used to simulate the joint effects of a range of additional daily labour requirements associated with staged scenarios and changes in crop production cost. The implications of these findings on bioregenerative system and physico-chemical system tradeoff are discussed.