JAXA Develops Culture Bag for Crop Production and Long-Term Food Supply in Space

The search for alternative ways to grow foods in space continues. Alongside NASA, efforts from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hold a promising solution that will enable humans to produce necessary sustenance above the surface of our planet.

In their recent studies, the Japanese space agency was able to process foods that could help experts survive long-term missions and explorations. Among the interests of their experiments is to provide sustenance that is specialized to grow not on the solid ground of Earth's surface but the harsh environment on the deep space.

Culture Bag Technology Now Testing at Kibo in the ISS

(Photo : David Hecker/Getty Images)
BREMEN, GERMANY - JULY 21: Engineer Salads are lying in a laboratory at the German Aerospace Center on July 21, 2014 in Bremen, Germany. Scientists and engineers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are developing greenhouses for a potential Mars colony. The greenhouses will contain combined life-support systems which use recycled urine to manufacture fertilizer, helping to grow vegetables for a lunar and Mars environment. The first greenhouse will be tested for nine months in 2016/17 in an inhospitable environment in the Antarctic.

JAXA's recent developments on space food products include a culture bag technology, which was already tested at the Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo,' which was linked up on the International Space Station (ISS).

The research was presented by JAXA and with the help of prestigious institutes of Japan, including Chiba University and the Tokyo University of Science. Several private enterprises also took part in conceptualizing the new approach of space food production, including the Kirin Holdings Company Limited. and the Takenaka Corporation.

Last year, experts from NASA were able to construct a food system, where the first crop of chili peppers was grown in space. The progress of this separate effort was conducted at the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) laboratory, which is also linked at the International Space Station.

APH consists of advanced food growing technology that, since its launch, has provided numerous insights to the studies revolving around the conundrum of crop cultivation in the unfamiliar cosmic environment.

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Crop Production in Space for Long-Term Food Supply

According to a report by HortiDaily, APH engineering expert and Kennedy Space Center researcher Oscar Monje, the module relies on a specialized watering system that is currently in the works to be sustainable for crop production in the future. Although still incomplete, the system provides a capacity to cater to small biological experiments outside the space.

Booth NASA and JAXA are the leading agencies that excel in providing better food quality and quantity for the experts in orbit. One of their focus is to construct a farm right on the moon's surface and strictly grow top-notch foods in space permanently, ultimately minimizing the dependence of supply from Earth.

JAXA's new plastic culture bag was first tested between August to October 2021 in a span of over 48 days. In the small bags, plants were grown carefully under the harsh environment on space. The bags were secured with technologies that prevent contamination from bacteria and infiltration of unwanted odors.

A compact cultivation device was also utilized in the experiments, which allows three bags to be kept simultaneously. It measures just 20 centimeters in height, 44 centimeters in width, and 5 kilograms in weight, a size that does not occupy too much space on the module. The lightweight device works with the help of the same water supply that is currently running on the ISS.