Plant Facilities for Inflatable Habitats

The forthcoming planetary missions will require a large amount of resources, among which food is of paramount importance. The capability to implement a meaningful food production must be achieved not only controlling the complete crop production chain but also providing the large volumes required for the scope.

Alcatel Alenia Space-Italia (AAS-I) with a team of partners are working in both directions, via design and development of plant growth facilities and of inflatable structures providing large volumes to host the cultivation system.

This paper presents the status currently reached, the lessons learnt and future works.