Space Agriculture Correspondence #27 （24 March, 2007）
Space Agriculture Saloon Meeting held in the last February
Early Fruiting of Mulberry "Mame-Bonsai"
Space Agriculture Presentation at Humans in Space Symposium (IAA), May 2007 Beijing, Correction on the Abstract
Space Agriculture Task Force, FY2006, Paper/Presentation and Report by Mass Media
Topics Presented at Space Agriculture Saloon Meeting
27 February, 2007 @ Japan Space Forum, Tokyo 13:00-17:00
Azolla for Agriculture
Martian Base (Simulant) Experience
Space Structure for Agriculture on Mars
Thermal Modeling of Space Agriculture
Co-culture of Azolla-Rice-Duck and Space Agriculture
Yoshiro Kishida (Okayama University)
Since ordinary people is unfamiliar with Azolla, an aquatic fern, overgrowing of Azolla on water and its coloring to red has reported by mass media often. Azolla is categorized to an endangered species that should be protected. However, at the same time, Azolla is treated as a weed in rice paddies, which causes damages on young rice plants by covering them over. Farmers have been directed to kill Azolla by this reason. Recently, application of Azolla for rice farming is under the regulation based on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and preservation of biodiversity. Two Azolla species, however, are allowed to be used for farming. Those are Azolla filiculoides (domestic species in Japan) and Hybrid of A. filiculoides and A. microphyla.
Azolla, by action of symbiotic cyanobacteria in it, is capable to fix nitrogen in air to the form that can be utilized by plants. Azolla is effective as green manure to deliver nutrients and improve soil properties. We should keep in mid that, in the case of enough nitrogen resources are provided from ambient, fixation of Azolla does not take place. Azolla is effective to suppress growth of weeds in rice paddies by covering water surface and cut solar light flux to the bottom of water. Azolla could be fed to water birds up to filling 10 to 20 % of their feed. Draw-back point of Azolla in this application is high (about 95%) content of water in it. Coculture of water bird or fish in rice paddies, mixing of bottom soil by them makes positive effects for farming rice. When phosphor is depleted, Azolla becomes colored to red, and stop its proliferation. By breeding water bird, phosphor originally contained in the feed for water bird is brought into rice paddies through liquefied form of excreta of bird. It solves the problem of phosphor depletion, which was faced during the pioneering work of Azolla-rice coculture. Since Azolla is capable to harvest heavy metal ions into its body, it is also prospected to apply it to bioremediation of polluted water area.
Simulated Martian Outpost
Kyoichi Sasazawa (Yomiuri Shimbun)
Mr. Sasagawa participated to the simulated Martian outpost project. One was located in the desert of Uta, where terrain is similar to Mars and dry and cold. Number of crew was six for a two weeks mission isolated from the outer world. The other simulated base visited was located in Arctic region of Canada.
In Uta, performance of space suit and other devices designed for manned geological survey on Mars was evaluated at conducting similar activity with simulating latency of communication between crew on site and control center. For life support capability in the base, water was recycled, and provided 20 liter per one person a day. Typical foods were processed of solid materials with water, such as macaroni and cheese. Alcoholic beverage was treated as that for ordinary life. Recruitment of the crew was made with the qualification required for geological survey. Applicants were evaluated on the basis of experiences in the required fields. Besides of American, crew of European background was selected, and racial composition and sex (male:female, 4:2) of the crew was diverged.
At the Arctic base, instruments and vehicle for geological survey on Mars were tested in the environment similar to Mars. Each of about 30 crew members changes by a week or two. The base is located on Devon island of Canada, where no biological organisms live at latitude of 75-76 degree. Frozen terrain there shows characteristic galley shape. A green house was a component of the simulated base. Vegetables was cultured under controlled environment even during the period of unmanned base. Growth of plants and its environment were remotely monitored.
Significance of sending scientists to Mars was explained with the need of on site observation and processing, such as looking on a fresh surface exposed by using a rock hammer. Comparison of cost and expected science made by unmanned probe and manned exploration should be made. However, anyone cannot deny our challenge for the next new world, space.Mr. Sasagawa published a book in 2006 from Shincho-sha, with a title;
Days when I walked on Mars -Report of Space Exploration Frontier
http://www.amazon.co.jp/僕が「火星」を歩いた日―宇宙探査最前線レポート-笹沢-教一/dp/4103033711
Space Structure and Space Agriculture
Naoko Kishimoto (ISAS/JAXA)
Several natural subjects, both animals and plants, are interested in their structure and deployment. It might inspire novel space structure and its design. Membrane of bat wing is made of adaptive materials and structure for its deployment and flap to create thrust force for flying. When hatching insects extend folded wing membrane and form it, sagging force induced by gravity might effective to this process. They also utilize centrifugal force or deploying pressure caused by infusion of body fluid into vein distributed over wing. On the other hand, microscopic plankton suspended in seawater are free from influence of gravity, and develop frame structure.
Dr. Kishimoto and her group is proposing an inflatable space structure and verification of its concept on exposed facility of the International Space Station. One of candidate experiment using this inflatable space structure is creating ecological system in it. Inflatable structure would make possible to deploy and function huge structure under microgravity in space. One of example is a thin (5 micron meter) film structure with a size of several hundred meters for solar sailing interplanetary space. A major problem to be solved for inflatable space structure is uncertainty or non-definitive feature of its shape during the deployment. Under terrestrial environment with gravity, it cannot validate the concept of inflatable structure at all. Space verification is strongly required to establish engineering of inflatable membrane structure and its application in space. The group is proposing verification test of multi-cell inflatable structure on the ISS, and is surveying required specification to their structure from candidate payloads.
Simulation Modeling of Space Plantation
Ayumi Sato, Kyoichiro Toki (Tokyo Univ. Agriculture and Technology)
Modeling of semi-closed ecological system was conducted for a conceptual design of space plantation. Life cycle of farming plants, i.e. growth, harvest, and termination of life was taken into account in the modeling. Heat budget in the system was considered at modeling a regulation system for agricultural environment (temperature, atmospheric pressure, and its composition). Response of plants against environmental parameter was defined in order to numerically analyze heat, and atmospheric dynamics including water vapor. Variation of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor in atmosphere is evaluated with the index of solar light incidence and life cycle of plants. Fruiting process and translocation of photosynthetic products were considered in the plant growth modeling. The space plantation model was designed to be donut like shape. Artificial gravity is generated by rotating around its axis. Solar light is guided to farming section by a combination of round disk mirror and a conical mirror placed at the center of the donut configuration. Louver was found effective to control temperature of the farming part in the desired range.
Early Fruiting of Mulberry "Mame-Bonsai"
"Mame-Bonsai" of Mulberry, brought by Dr. Tomita-Yokotani.
See scale at the bottom. (30mm)
Human in Space Symposium (IAA), May 2007 Beijing
Correction on the Abstract;
Katayama, et al; Azolla as a Dish of Space Diet for Habitation on Mars
Space Agriculture Task Force, FY2006, Presentation and On-Mass Media
1) Publications
Masamichi Yamashita, Yoji Ishikawa, Yoshiaki Kitaya, Eiji Goto, Mayumi Arai, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Kaori Tomita-Yokotani, Masayuki Hirafuji, Katsunori Omori, Atsushi Shiraishi, Akira Tani, Kyoichiro Toki, Hiroki Yokota, Osamu Fujita; An Overview of Challenges in Modeling Heat and Mass Transfer for Living on Mars, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Science, 1077, 232-243 (2006)
Naomi Katayama, Masamichi Yamashita, Hidenori Wada, Jun Mitsuhashi, Space Agriculture Task Force; Entomophagy as Part of a Space Diet for Habitation on Mars, J. Space Technol. Sci., 21-2, 27-38 (2005)
Masamichi Yamashita, Yoji Ishikawa, Makoto Nagatomo, Tairo Oshima, Hidenori Wada, and Space Agriculture Task Force; Space Agriculture for Manned Space Exploration on Mars, J. Space Technol. Sci., 21-2, 1-10 (2005)
Makoto Nagatomo; Experimental Study on Growth of Young Trees under The Pressure of One Tenth of Earth Atmosphere. J. Space Technol. Sci., 21-2, 11-26 (2005)Yuji Nakamura; Engineering of Pressurized Structure and Fire Safety for Space Habitation on Mars - Needs of Fundamental Fire Researches for Space Enclosure System- J. Space Technol. Sci., 21-2, 39-48 (2005)
Hashimoto, H., Koike, J., Yamashita, M., Oshima, T., Space Agriculture Saloon; Proposal for Extension of Planetary Protection Policy to Avoid Biological Contamination of Mars with Manned Exploration Supported by Space Agriculture, Viva Origino, 34, 86-89 (2006)
N. Katayama, Y. Ishikawa, M. Takaoki, M. Yamashita, S. Nakayama, K. Kiguchi, R. Kok, H. Wada, J. Mitsuhashi and Space Agriculture Task Force; Entomophagy; a key to space agriculture, Adv Space Res, on line, (2007)
Y. Nakamura, A. Aoki; Ignition of Solid Fuels at Low Pressure, Selected Paper at Proc. 25th Int'l. Sympo. on Space Tech. and Science (ISTS), (2006), pp.922-927.
Y. Nakamura, A. Aoki; Irradiated Ignition of Solid Materials in Reduced Pressure Atmosphere with Various Oxygen Concentrations - For Fire Safety in Space Habitats, Adv Space Res, on line, (2007)
International Conferences
Masamichi Yamashita, Naomi Katayama, Shigeo Mori; Living in Greenhouse Built on Mars, Gravitational Physiology, 13(1)), P-155-156 (2006)
Shin-ichiro Kanazawa, Yoji Ishikawa, Kaori Tomita-Yokotani, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Kitaya, Masamichi Yamashita, Makoto Nagatomo, Tairo Oshima, Hidenori Wada and Space Agriculture Task Force; Space agriculture for habitation on Mars using thermophilic aerobic composting bacteria, insects, woods and other biological members, COSPAR Beijing, July, 2006 (Submitted to Adv Space Res)
Tairo Oshima, Shin-ichiro Kanazawa, T. Moriya, Yoji Ishikawa, Hirofumi Hashimoto, Masamichi Yamashita, and Space Agriculture Task Force; Hyper-thermophilic aerobic bacterial ecology for space agriculture, COSPAR Beijing, July, 2006 (Submitted to Adv Space Res)
Masamichi Yamashita; Eating Insect for Habitation on Mars - A Testbed for Solving Our Global Problems, International Space Medicine Symposium in Sapporo 2007, Sapporo (2007)
Y. Nakamura, A. Aoki, O. Fujita, H. Ito; Similarity in Irradiated Ignition Characteristics of Cellulosic Paper under Low Gravity and Low Pressure Environments, 5th International Symposium on Scale Modeling (ISSM-V), Choshi, Sept, 2006 pp.89-98.
Mass Media
Xinhua News Agency,19 July, 2006 Japanese scientists discuss recycling in space
Xinhua News Agency, 24 July, 2006 Silkworm Space Cookies Add Flavour To Diet
