Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
group
What campus are you from?
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Parker Mann, Senior Mitchell Villafania, Senior Ella Rowe, Senior Paulina Slick, Senior Collin Topolski, Graduate Student Dr. Hugo Castillo, Faculty mentor
Lead Presenter's Name
Parker Mann
Faculty Mentor Name
Hugo Castillo
Abstract
With human space exploration expanding to establish bases on the Moon, there are increased challenges involved to sustain astronauts. One major limitation is the food supply, which must be constantly replaced and increases mission costs. However, with long-duration missions to the Moon, the lunar environment can provide resources that can be accessed in-situ for plant growth. Plant production in space, however, poses challenges inherent to the biological stress response imposed by factors like microgravity and radiation, as shown by multiple experiments at the ISS or in simulated space environments. At the Moon, the regolith can provide support for plant growth and serve as a substrate for the formation of soil through weathering processes and the biological influence of crops and their associated microbial communities. To aid successful plant growth, microbial communities from human waste products could be used to develop organic soils, like traditional, Earth-based farming.
This project aims to understand the implications of including microbial communities, from manure, on plant growth in the lunar environment. Completing this will require the utilization of lunar regolith simulant to grow Mizuna Mustard under simulated µG conditions and to study the organic content and microbial communities in the substrate as plant matter is reincorporated through successive growth cycles. To evaluate the changes, the team will study the plants' physical changes, soil composition changes, and molecular microbial profile changes. The results of this research add to the growing study of space microbial ecology and provide relevant information to future long duration space exploration missions.
Did this research project receive funding support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Yes, Ignite Grant
Plant and Microbial Interactions Under Simulated Microgravity Conditions
With human space exploration expanding to establish bases on the Moon, there are increased challenges involved to sustain astronauts. One major limitation is the food supply, which must be constantly replaced and increases mission costs. However, with long-duration missions to the Moon, the lunar environment can provide resources that can be accessed in-situ for plant growth. Plant production in space, however, poses challenges inherent to the biological stress response imposed by factors like microgravity and radiation, as shown by multiple experiments at the ISS or in simulated space environments. At the Moon, the regolith can provide support for plant growth and serve as a substrate for the formation of soil through weathering processes and the biological influence of crops and their associated microbial communities. To aid successful plant growth, microbial communities from human waste products could be used to develop organic soils, like traditional, Earth-based farming.
This project aims to understand the implications of including microbial communities, from manure, on plant growth in the lunar environment. Completing this will require the utilization of lunar regolith simulant to grow Mizuna Mustard under simulated µG conditions and to study the organic content and microbial communities in the substrate as plant matter is reincorporated through successive growth cycles. To evaluate the changes, the team will study the plants' physical changes, soil composition changes, and molecular microbial profile changes. The results of this research add to the growing study of space microbial ecology and provide relevant information to future long duration space exploration missions.