Eu:CROPIS satellite: “Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space.”
Credit: DLR (CC BY 3.0)

The Eu:CROPIS mission will be launched into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California November 19, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster.

Eu:CROPIS stands for “Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space.”

The unique investigation was designed and built by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the Friedrich Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen–Nuremberg.

The Eu:CROPIS satellite is roughly one cubic meter in size and weighs over 500 pounds (230 kilograms) with its biological payload.

Life support systems

Deployed from the SpaceX launcher at some 370 miles (600 kilometers) altitude the satellite carries two biological life support systems that carry greenhouses, dwarf tomato seeds, single-celled algae and synthetic urine.

The aim is for the seeds to germinate in space and continue to grow due to the successful conversion of urine into a fertilizer solution. The mission is intended to show how biological life support systems can be used to supply food on long-term missions.

Packing up the Eu:CROPIS satellite.
Credit: DLR

Rotation rates

During the mission, the satellite will rotate around its longitudinal axis. Depending on the rotation rate, this generates a specific level of altered gravity.

According to the DLR, during the first part of the experimental phase, gravitational conditions like those on the Moon will be created (0.16 times Earth’s gravitational pull), with 20 rotations per minute. This will last for around 23 weeks. The first greenhouse will be put into operation during this phase.

In the second research phase, the satellite will simulate gravity on Mars (0.38 times that of Earth) by rotating 32 times per minute. Experiments will now take place in the second life support system.

On-camera activities

The processes at play inside the greenhouses are to be recorded by cameras and transmitted down to Earth.

Cosmic tomatoes will grow in two greenhouses inside the Eu:CROPIS satellite.
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

“This mission seeks to show that urine can be converted into nutrients even under lunar and Martian gravity conditions,” says Jens Hauslage of the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne.

The DLR German Space Operations Center (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhohen will control the satellite.

Also on board the Eu:CROPIS satellite: two Radiation Measurement in Space devices and an on-board computer to process the images taken by the on-board cameras. NASA will also be running a PowerCell experiment relating to the production of useful substances in space using bacteria.

Space-Earth link

As explained by the DLR, fresh vegetables that thrive in space thanks to converted organic waste products are not only a prerequisite for long-term space travel, but the research findings from such projects can also be useful on Earth.

For example, if urine or manure can be recycled into fresh water and nutrients usable by plants, this could improve living conditions in overcrowded areas or in places that have an extreme shortage of drinking water, while providing relief for soil and groundwater – another of DLR’s areas of research.

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