EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility remains in Antarctica!

Press Release April 2019

The first EDEN ISS Antarctic mission (February – November 2018) aimed at advancing controlled environment agriculture technologies for plant cultivation in extreme conditions, applicable to both terrestrial earth and space exploration. In April 2019, the EU-funded project comes to a complete close with all research concluded, providing definitive results. Due to the advantages this unique learning platform offers, it has been decided to extend research missions into 2021.

Partner institutions German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), operators of the German Antarctic research center Neumayer Station III, will keep the analogue facility in operation for a minimum of two years until 2021, enabling two more isolation phases. Between January and February 2019, the facility was updated with repairs made to all subsystems where required. A complete cleaning of the greenhouse was performed preparing the facility for future research and analogue testing.

Researchers interested in taking advantage of the highly isolated conditions of Antarctica, remote monitoring and communication system, and/or the high-functioning systems architecture of the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility are invited to contact Dr. Daniel Schubert to submit research proposals.

In April 2019, the EU-funded project comes to a close with first phase research concluded, providing definitive results.

In April 2019, the EU-funded project comes to a close with first phase research concluded, providing definitive results. During the Antarctic mission, a significant amount of fruits and vegetables were produced in the Future Exploration Greenhouse and were a great benefit to the over-wintering crew at the Neumayer Station III. A large amount of plant and microbiological samples from within the greenhouse have been preserved and are currently being tested by project partners for determining further the quality and safety of the cultivated fruits and vegetables.

The EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility is comprised of two standard shipping containers fitted-out to accommodate a Future Exploration Greenhouse, a service section, a climatic buffer zone, and all the required subsystems for operating a controlled-environment greenhouse (including an LED Illumination System, Atmosphere Management System & Thermal Control System, a Nutrient Delivery System, and Plant Health Monitoring system, and an all-in-one hardware and software platform for monitoring and controlling all equipment and for communications between the Mission Control Centre in Bremen.)

Contact: Dr. Daniel Schubert, project coordinator, DLR-Bremen, Daniel.schubert@dlr.de