VDX Habitat
Growing food and closing the loops of water, nutrients and air in sealed environments: indoor farms and greenhouses on Earth, and one day bases on the Moon and Mars.
Guiding questionHow much food can a closed system produce for every litre of water and kilowatt-hour it uses?
Experiments
In this area.
Context
Why this area.
A crew months away from Earth can't count on resupply. Growing part of its own food, and recycling the water that goes into it, decides how long a mission can last and how much has to be launched. In a habitat every watt is budgeted too, and light is the largest energy cost of growing plants indoors.
The same constraints apply here: to vertical farms in cities, to arid regions where water is the limit, and to any agriculture that has to produce more with fewer resources.
Existing research
Growing plants for life support has been studied for decades. These programmes are the reference points for our work. We cite them as background only: VDX Research is not affiliated with any of them.
- MELiSSA, European Space Agency: a long-running programme for a closed-loop life support system, in which waste, water and air are recycled and plants are one of the compartments. Official page
- EDEN ISS, German Aerospace Center (DLR): a container greenhouse at the Neumayer III station in Antarctica, used to test food production for future habitats in an isolated, closed setting. Official page
- Veggie, NASA: the plant growth unit on the International Space Station, where crews have grown leafy greens and flowers under LED light. Official page