Post-harvest cleaning, sanitization, and microbial monitoring of soilless nutrient delivery systems for sustainable space crop production.

Autor:	Curry AB; Engineering Research and Consulting LLC, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Spern CJ; Noetic Strategies Inc., Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Khodadad CLM; Noetic Strategies Inc., Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Hummerick ME; Noetic Strategies Inc., Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Spencer LE; Noetic Strategies Inc., Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Torres J; Amentum, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Finn JR; The Bionetics Corporation, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Gooden JL; Aetos Systems Inc., Kennedy Space, Merritt Island, FL, United States., Monje O; Air Revitalization Lab, Aetos Systems Inc., Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, FL, United States.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Frontiers in plant science [Front Plant Sci] 2024 Oct 11; Vol. 15, pp. 1308150. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 11 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI:	10.3389/fpls.2024.1308150
Abstrakt:	Bioregenerative food systems that routinely produce fresh, safe-to-eat crops onboard spacecraft can supplement the nutrition and variety of shelf-stable spaceflight food systems for use during future exploration missions (i.e., low earth orbit, Mars transit, lunar, and Martian habitats). However, current space crop production systems are not yet sustainable because they primarily utilize consumable granular media and, to date, operate like single crop cycle, space biology experiments where root modules are sanitized prior to launch and discarded after each grow-out. Moreover, real-time detection of the cleanliness of crops produced in spacecraft is not possible. A significant paradigm shift is needed in the design of future space crop production systems, as they transition from operating as single grow-out space biology experiments to becoming sustainable over multiple cropping cycles. Soilless nutrient delivery systems have been used to demonstrate post-harvest sanitization and inflight microbial monitoring technologies to enable sequential cropping cycles in spacecraft. Post-harvest cleaning and sanitization prevent the buildup of biofilms and ensure a favorable environment for seedling establishment of the next crop. Inflight microbial monitoring of food and watering systems ensures food safety in spaceflight food systems. A sanitization protocol, heat sterilization at 60°C for 1 h, and soaking for 12 h in 1% hydrogen peroxide, developed in this study, was compared against a standard hydroponic sanitization protocol during five consecutive crop cycles. Each cropping cycle included protocols for the cultivation of a crop to maturity, followed by post-harvest cleaning and inflight microbial monitoring. Microbial sampling of nutrient solution reservoirs, root modules, and plants demonstrated that the sanitization protocol could be used to grow safe-to-eat produce during multiple crop cycles. The cleanliness of the reservoir and root module surfaces measured with aerobic plate counts was verified in near real time using a qPCR-based inflight microbial monitoring protocol. Post-harvest sanitization and inflight microbial monitoring are expected to significantly transform the design of sustainable bioregenerative food and life support systems for future exploration missions beyond low earth orbit (LEO). Competing Interests: Author AC was employed by Engineering Research and Consulting LLC. Authors CS, CK, MH, and LS were employed by Noetic Strategies Inc. Author JF was employed by The Bionetics Corporation. Author JG was employed by Aetos Systems Inc. Author OM was employed by Aetos Systems Inc. The remaining author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. (Copyright © 2024 Curry, Spern, Khodadad, Hummerick, Spencer, Torres, Finn, Gooden and Monje.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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