Conference 7.286::space

789.0. "KSC Scientists Harvest 1992 CELSS Crop" by PRAGMA::GRIFFIN (Dave Griffin) Fri Mar 20 1992 00:37

Mitch Varnes                                     March 18, 1992
407/867-2468
 
KSC Release No. 33-92
 
 
     NASA scientists today pulled out their  pruning  shears  and
scales  for the first time this year to harvest nearly 350 pounds
of potatoes  grown  without  soil  inside  a  computer-controlled
biomass chamber on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
 
     Today's potato harvest concluded the 90-day growth cycle for
the second group of potatoes to be grown inside the bubble-shaped
biosphere  of  the Closed Ecological Life Support System (CELSS).
"The  yield  was  significantly  better  than   our   preliminary
studies,"  remarked NASA research plant physiologist Dr.  Raymond
Wheeler.   "We're very pleased with the results  of  this  potato
crop and the continued performance of the CELSS chamber."
 
     The  potato harvest was the eleventh in the history of KSC's
CELSS research program.   Lettuce,  soybeans and wheat are  other
plants  previously  harvested  from the CELSS chamber,  which was
constructed from test hardware used in  the  Mercury  and  Gemini
programs.   Using a specially developed environment controlled by
computers, NASA scientists are learning how to deliver nutrients,
monitor growth and gaseous outputs  and  produce  healthy  plants
with a minimum amount of human intervention.
 
     CELSS  is  a  futuristic  program being developed for a time
when astronauts will need to grow much  of  their  own  foods  in
space.   The program will prove imperative and invaluable for fu-
ture long-duration space missions  and  ventures  into  planetary
habitats.  The goals of CELSS researchers are to learn how to use
a  controlled  environment  to  grow  food,  generate  oxygen and
recycle waste products to fertilize the plants.