The Human Health Countermeasures (HHC) Element of NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP), along with other organizations within NASA, conduct research and capability developments to buy down the risk of performance decrement and crew illness due to inadequate food and nutrition. Food and nutrition are critical for health and performance both in low Earth orbit and on exploration missions. On the International Space Station (ISS), crewmembers share a defined set of pantry foods, and have limited preference and shelf-life foods (e.g. fruits and vegetables) from resupply missions. Exploration design reference missions (DRMs) will likely be more constrained than missions to ISS, where those crewmembers would be subject to a more restricted food system due to resource limitations. HRP food and nutrition research consists of studies to close the following research gaps: determination of the nutritional requirements to maintain health and performance for the defined DRMs, determining the nutrient content, safety, and acceptability of the spaceflight food system specific to DRM and vehicle constraints, development of countermeasures either within or in addition to the food system to mitigate decrements to health and performance by DRM, and the validation and integration of food system countermeasures in analogs and in flight. The current spaceflight food system is shelf-stable, consisting of freeze-dried foods, thermostabilized foods, natural form foods, and powdered beverages. Crops represent a food system countermeasure that has the potential to supplement the pre-packaged food system. As an applied research program, HRP goals for crop research are centered around three main themes: nutrition, safety, and acceptability. As crops advance through Crop Readiness Level evaluations, HHC partners with the sponsoring organization to ensure that HRP goals are met for crops to be consumed in spaceflight.

Following the 2019 Canadian Space Strategy, the Canadian Space Agency established a Food Production Initiative tasked with advancing the state of controlled environment agriculture and advanced life support systems able to provide food and life-support services for lunar exploration missions. Early consultations with Canadian industry and academia, as well as international partners, provided initial recommendations to guide investments needed to address the objectives of the Food Production Initiative; to position Canada as a leader in lunar food production and to provide one or more critical systems to an international lunar surface food system partnership. Following these recommendations, Canada, along with several international partners, is actively studying concepts for infrastructure intended to support and ensure a sustainable human presence, while also supporting meaningful lunar science. In this context, the Lunar Agricultural Module (LAM), which would significantly support international efforts to expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and help secure the future of the Canadian astronaut program, has been proposed. On route towards a full-scale LAM, several critical mid-term milestones that would contribute towards this proposed flagship level contribution are being actively investigated. These mid-term milestones include a small lunar plant growth payload and a high-fidelity bioregenerative life support LAM-Ground-Test Demonstrator. All proposed activities leading towards the LAM are poised to create tangible socio-economic benefits, including advancing food security in Canada’s northern and remote communities. This presentation will outline some of the work to date that has led to the ensuing vision statement, approach and related infrastructure/ hardware roadmap from Canadian Space Agency consultation and analysis.

It has been demonstrated that plants display a genuine response to moisture gradients, root hydrotropism, for their better growth and survival under water-limited conditions. On Earth, gravitropic response interferes with hydrotropism in roots, although the degree of interference differs among plant species. Therefore, hydrotropism was first re-discovered with agravitropic roots of pea mutant ageotropum and thereafter via clinorotation experiments [1,2]. Based on a hypothesis obtained from these studies, we conducted spaceflight experiments to verify the interaction between gravitropism and hydrotropism in cucumber roots [3]. In the presence of moisture gradients, cucumber roots grew toward the side of higher-water potential in microgravity and along the gravity direction under artificial 1G conditions in space. These successful separation of the two tropisms led us to find unique mechanisms for root hydrotropism. Root hydrotropism occurs independently of the root cap, while columella cells in the root cap play a crucial role in the auxin-regulated gravitropism [4,5]. MIZU-KUSSEI1 (MIZ1) indispensable for hydrotropism in Arabidopsis roots functions in cortical cells of the root elongation zone [4,6]. Abscisic acid (ABA) also plays an important role in the cortex-regulated hydrotropism of Arabidopsis roots [4]. Interestingly, MIZ1-overexpressors showed more pronounced hydrotropic response than the wild type and better growth under drought conditions in Arabidopsis roots [7,8]. MIZ1 homologues are found in the genomes of various land plants, suggesting their roles in hydrotropism of crop roots as well. Currently, however, we do not know whether MIZ1 homologues in crop plants are functional in their hydrotropic response or not. It is therefore important to examine the MIZ1- and ABA-regulation of root hydrotropism in crop plants, which will lead to the development of useful technology to grow plants with a minimum amount of water in arid area on Earth or in some cultivation systems of space plant factory. This paper presents our approach for such purpose and an outline of newly established research center for space horticulture at Chiba University in Japan.

Plants play pivotal roles in sustaining human life beyond Earth, serving as sources of food, contributors to environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS), and buffers against psychological stress during space exploration missions. Understanding plant adaptation to the unique stressors of space environments, such as radiation, altered gravity, and toxic regolith, is paramount for successful long-duration missions. The European Space Agency (ESA) is actively engaged in advancing plant research across various space habitats, including Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Beyond Low Earth Orbit (BLEO) at the lunar Gateway, and conceptual experiments for the lunar surface, with a view toward future Mars exploration.
ESA's efforts encompass a comprehensive approach to investigate plant responses to space stressors, unravel the mechanisms of plant gravitational biology, and develop enabling technologies for crop production in space and their terrestrial applications. Here, we present a summary of ESA's activities in these areas, highlighting recent advancements, ongoing projects, and future research directions.
ESA's vision extends beyond space exploration, with a focus on translating technological developments to benefit Earth in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By making use of available platforms in space, fundamental knowledge can be gained while taking steps to secure future exploration endeavours. Through such advances, ESA aims to enhance food security and sustainability, mitigating challenges posed by climate change and resource scarcity.
This presentation will provide insights into ESA's current and planned activities in advancing plant biology research for future space exploration, emphasising the agency's synergistic approach to sustainable habitation beyond Earth, for Earth.