TIME SCALE: Towards the next generation research and technology demonstration platform for life support systems on the International Space Station

As part of the EU Horizon 2020 project TIME SCALE, a flight concept for cultivation of higher plants and algae platform has been developed. This will allow life scientific research and technology demonstration on the International Space Station to benefit future closed regenerative life support system as part of human space exploration. The concept consists of several subsystems that allow environmental control, plant health monitoring and water and nutrient management. It is modular with possibility to exchange of e.g. a Plant cultivation chamber with an Alga cultivation chamber. The main focus in the project has been on the Crop cultivation system. Particular emphasize has been on the water and nutrient system and the Plant cultivation chamber since lesson learned from previous space experiments show that these subsystems are challenging under reduced gravity conditions, i.e. there is a knowledge and technology gap in this area. To demonstrate this flight concept on ground a Crop cultivation system prototype has been designed and developed. The system has an automated recycling of water and nutrients in a closed water loop, including a gradual increase of the nutrient concentration corresponding to the plant life cycles and nutrient demand. As part of the prototype verification tests, lettuce will be cultivated for 20 days. During the final test eight individual macro-nutrients (ions) will be automatically monitored via the new and state of the art CleanGrow multi- ion-sensor system. This presentation will outline the TIME SCALE Crop cultivation system prototype functionalities, the final test results with lettuce, as well as, the future potential utilization in flight operations.