As astronauts venture farther from Earth, and stay for longer periods, the space food system will increase in importance. Crop production can supplement a pre-packaged space diet to provide nutrition and dietary variety for space crews. In future missions, bioregenerative approaches may be used to generate a larger percentage of the diet, as well as help to reduce life support system burdens and resupply from Earth. Plants may also provide behavioral health benefits to crew members living in the isolated, confined environment of a space habitat. A number of unique challenges exist for growth of plants in microgravity and on other reduced gravity surfaces like the moon and Mars. Testing plant growth inside the Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) chambers on the International Space Station is allowing us to understand the impacts of gravity and spaceflight on crop growth, nutritional content, acceptability, and the importance of plants to astronauts living and working away from Earth. We are also gaining a better understanding of food safety concerns and the behavior of space plant microbiomes and plant pathogens, but major gaps in knowledge remain. As we move from research towards operational space crop production to enable exploration, there are numerous gaps in technology, knowledge, and practice related to space crop growth that must be addressed. Research and development in key focus areas such as effective water and nutrient delivery at variable gravity levels, autonomous plant health monitoring, growth system cleaning and disinfection, and selection of ideal space crops are needed to fill these gaps. Breeding or engineering custom space crops may impact areas including plant growth and development, plant physiology, produce nutrition, organoleptic acceptability, and post-harvest characteristics, and these may further enable space crop production scenarios. Space crop challenges are multifaceted and require diverse interdisciplinary teams working together to develop effective solutions. Solving these requires an array of skill sets from across the biological and physical sciences, engineering, and human social sciences. Solutions to help ensure food security off-Earth may also translate to more sustainable terrestrial crop production approaches, and regular dialog between industry, academia, and government organizations working in related fields benefit all. Additional help can come from engagement with student researchers at various levels through courses, participatory science projects, and open science activities which can provide useful data. Global coordination and integration between space agencies and partners will be essential.

1. Introduction
The development of plant cultivation technology within the closed environment of spacecraft is being pursued by various nations, with a focus on securing fresh food supplies, providing mental support for astronauts, and advancing future life support systems. Recognizing plant cultivation technology as a core technology in manned space exploration, we have initiated the development of a device for long-term cultivation. Plant cultivation requires a significant amount of water, yet water is a precious resource in space exploration. Therefore, we aimed to design a device capable of cultivation with minimal water usage.

2. Method
To enable cultivation with minimal water, the following three aspects were considered.
2.1 Design of the water supply
To ensure a long-term stable water supply, a simple structure is adopted with pipes positioned inside the substrate (Figure 1).

2.2 Substrates to replace soil
Materials suitable for microgravity environments are limited, and substances that scatter like soil are undesirable. Therefore, we conducted the selection of substrates to replace soil. We used six materials shown in Figure 2. Cultivated plants are listed in table 1. The amount of yield fruit was evaluated.

2.3 Condensation/reuse of transpired water
The planned device under development aims to have specifications allowing temperature and humidity control. Therefore, we designed a dehumidifier to enable the condensation and reuse of transpired water emitted by plants. Transpired water was collected by cooling the Aluminum alloy (AlSi10Mg) slit, formed using a 3D printer, using a Peltier device (Figure 3).

3. Result
Cultivation results are shown in Figure 2 and Table 1. It was observed that different substrates are suitable for different plants, and a common factor contributing to good growth is the substrate's ability to incorporate both air and water around the roots adequately. Clay pebbles were not able to absorb water. As a result, water accumulated at the bottom of the container, leading to root rot. Upon operating the dehumidifier in a closed space with a volume of 53,856 cm³, we observed a temperature decrease of 1.4 ~ 2.7 ̊C and a humidity decrease of 22 ~ 35 wt.% within 7 minutes.

4. Conclusion
It was observed that different substrates are suitable for different plants, indicating the need for further investigation. The dehumidifier has been confirmed to efficiently dehumidify and cool the air in a short period. Further details and the future prospects of the apparatus will be presented during the event.

The complete closing of material cycles is the ultimate goal in closed life-support systems. The integration of plants and humans in such a system provides both groups with the necessary substances to sustain life. The obvious cycles here are those of air and water, but the nutrition of plants in particular is also an important cycle that can only ensure long-term survival if it is closed. The DLR C.R.O.P biofilter is a trickle filter that brings the functionality of nitrification into a closed technical system and is able to convert urine into a nitrate-containing solution within a short time. In addition to nitrification, xenobiotics can also be degraded. This has been demonstrated with ibuprofen and diclofenac. The filter is also characterized by a long service life and low maintenance. The filter has a natural bacterial consortium, which has been analyzed several times in independent filters. The method is now being commercialized as a technology developed for space travel in a DLR spin off in the agricultural sector for liquid manure. Converting manure in a better fertilizer for agricultural use.

In the framework of the long duration crewed missions preparation, ESA has been performing research and technology activities in life support. Since the early days, emphasis has been put on the development of closed regenerative systems fulfilling wastes management, air revitalisation, water recycling and food production.
Within this context, the particular case of the higher plant production to fulfil few of these functions will be addressed. The activities are performed under the umbrella of the MELiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) project and globally aim at the development of a higher plant compartment to fulfil a high level of food production with predictable and controllable impact on waste management, air revitalisation and water recycling.
The presentation will introduce an overview of the current developments and the challenges for future integration in a closed regenerative system as well as implementation in space.

EDEN ISS was a plant production facility located near Germany's Neumayer Station III (NM-III) in Antarctica from 2018 until 2022. During this project, four overwintering teams, each comprised of 9 to 10 crew members, spent 14 to 15 months at NM-III, of which 9 to 11 months were in total isolation. The overwintering crews tested more than 60 cultivars of fruits, vegetables, and herbs in EDEN ISS, producing a grand total of over 1 metric ton of fresh edible biomass. EDEN ISS served as the sole source of fresh produce in this extreme and isolated environment, and the crops supplemented both the crew's diet and psychological health. Many of the cultivars grown in EDEN ISS were selected because they had been previously grown in crop production hardware on the International Space Station, but EDEN ISS also provided the novel opportunity to test cultivars and plant families that have not yet been tested in existing space hardware, particularly crops with larger volume requirements such as cucumber and kohlrabi. Crops were also grown concurrently and continuously in EDEN ISS during the isolation periods. In this paper, we report on the successes of these crops, horticultural and system challenges, and approaches to maintain crew interest in the plants and resulting produce throughout the mission. It is our hope that the data, crew feedback, and lessons learned from EDEN ISS can be used to make better informed decisions on the design and operations of a large-scale crop production facility for missions on the Moon and Mars.