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The EDEN ISS project has the objective to test key technologies and processes for higher plant cultivation with a focus on their application to long duration spaceflight. A mobile plant production facility was designed and constructed by an international consortium and deployed to the German Antarctic Neumayer Station III. Future astronaut crews, even if well-trained and provided with detailed procedures, cannot be expected to have the competencies needed to deal with all situations that will arise during a mission. Future space crews, as they are today, will be supported by expert backrooms on the ground. For future space-based greenhouses, monitoring the crops and the plant growth system increases system reliability and decreases the crew time required to maintain them. The EDEN ISS greenhouse incorporates a Plant Health Monitoring System to provide remote support for plant status assessment and early detection of plant stress or disease. The EDEN ISS greenhouse has the capability to automatically capture and distribute images from its suite of 32 high-definition color cameras. Collected images are transferred over a satellite link to the EDEN ISS Mission Control Center in Bremen and to project participants worldwide. Upon reception, automatic processing software analyzes the images for anomalies, evaluates crop performance, and predicts the days remaining until harvest of each crop tray. If anomalies or sub-optimal performance is detected, the image analysis system generates automatic warnings to the agronomist team who then discuss, communicate, or implement countermeasure options. A select number of Dual Wavelength Spectral Imagers have also been integrated into the facility for plant health monitoring to detect potential plant stress before it can be seen on the images taken by the high-definition color cameras. These imagers and processing approaches are derived from traditional space-based imaging techniques but permit new discoveries to be made in a facility like the EDEN ISS greenhouse in which, essentially, every photon of input and output can be controlled and studied. This paper presents a description of the EDEN ISS Plant Health Monitoring System, basic image analyses, and a summary of the results from the initial year of Antarctic operations.

This document describes the overall deployment of the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility to Antarctica. It builds upon the EDEN ISS-DLR-WP4.4-D4.4-Overall System Test Report which described the assembly, integration and test phase of the project as well as the preparation and transport of the facility to Antarctica. This Initial System Test Report commences with the offloading of the Mobile Test Facility from the S.A. Agulhas II research vessel in the vicinity of the Neumayer Station III. It then describes the installation activities, results of initial on-site tests, issues encountered during the installation, as well as particular design modifications incorporated into the facility.

The overall system test report describes the preparation, execution and results of the assembly, integration and test phase. In particular this document provides details on: AIT infrastructure AIT phase timeline Subsystem results, issues that surfaced and design lessons learned Overall test phase results De-integration and shipment preparation

This document provides the system software interface requirements of the EDEN ISS project. It includes the definition of all EDEN ISS external and internal software interface requirements. This includes a definition of telemetry from EDEN ISS sensors and telecommands used for controlling specific EDEN ISS equipment, EDEN ISS synoptic displays. &nbsp

This document provides the system hardware interface requirements of the EDEN ISS project. It includes the definition of all Mobile Test Facility (MTF) external and internal hardware interface requirements. A separate document, D2.2 EDEN ISS Software Interface Requirements, defines all the software interface requirements including definition of telemetry from MTF sensors and telecommands used for controlling specific MTF equipment. &nbsp

This document provides the system requirements of the EDEN ISS project.

This document presents an overview of the Mobile Test Facility Power Control and Distribution System. Additionally, this document describes the Command and Data Handling System (CDHS) of the EDEN ISS project. In particular, it describes the CDHS of the Mobile Test Facility including the Argus control system, general network infrastructure, mobile platform and camera control and management hardware, the wireless link between the MTF and Neumayer Station III as well as Neumayer Station III EDEN ISS data and communication hardware. The document also details the overall Antarctica-Europe control and data transfer link and the EDEN ISS User Home Bases. Finally, Mobile Test Facility safety hardware is also described. &nbsp

The development of plant production facilities for extreme environments presents challenges not typically faced by developers of greenhouses in more traditional environments. Antarctica represents one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth and presents unique challenges to facility developers with respect to environmental regulations, logistics, waste management, and energy use. The unique challenges associated with plant production in Antarctica heavily influence the selection of subsystem components and technologies as well as the operational paradigms used to operate the facilities. This paper details a wide array of the early design choices and trade-offs that have arisen in the development of Antarctic plant production facilities. Specific requirements and several guidelines stemming from the Antarctic Treaty’s Protocol on Environment Protection and their influence on Antarctic plant production facilities are described. A review of guidelines for Antarctic greenhouses published by several national Antarctic operators is also described. The specific technology choices of several past and present Antarctic greenhouses are summarized, as are the general operational strategies, such as solid and nutrient solution waste handling. Specific lessons learned input was compiled directly from developers and operators of a number of these facilities. A discussion on the Antarctic climate, differences in Antarctic installation locations, internal versus external station plant growth facilities, preshipment testing programs, carbon dioxide enrichment and numerous other Antarctic facility design trade-offs are elaborated. It is hoped that this paper can serve as a useful checklist for future Antarctic plant production facility developers.

This document provides a summary of the results of the two week EDEN ISS concurrent engineering design study conducted from Sep 7-18, 2015. The primary goal of the study was to produce a preliminary design of the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility. This preliminary design includes details from all Mobile Test Facility subsystems as well as initial details on a number of scientific and operational themes relevant to the EDEN ISS project. It is important to note, that the design of the Mobile Test Facility will continue to evolve, especially at the subsystem level, but that this document represents a snapshot of the design at the system level, and its status at the completion of the concurrent engineering design study in conjunction with its associated period of post-processing. The design study also generated a number of important supplementary reference documents including subsystem block diagrams and detailed ‘subsystem calculators’ which detail all subsystem components, quantities, estimated mass, volume and power in addition to a first detailed estimate of project spares and consumables. Although extracts of this information are included directly in the report, the current drafts of these documents should be referenced as separate files. The EDEN ISS concurrent engineering design study has matured the design of the Mobile Test Facility and its Future Exploration Greenhouse, Service Section (including the ISPR full rack plant growth system demonstrator) and cold porch. The study has proven the feasibility of the EDEN ISS project and demonstrated that the facility will serve as a valuable resource to the Neumayer III Antarctic Station and as a test-bed for testing plant growth technologies and operational techniques for use within future space-based missions. &nbsp

The Animation Works (D7.11) is part of WP7.1 Public Engagement of the EDEN ISS project. A com‐ puter generated movie of three minutes length shall serve as a compressed general description of the project setup during its experimental phase, and the functionality of the Mobile Test Facility (MTF) in particular.

This document presents the data management plan of the EDEN ISS project.

Plant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The EDEN ISS project foresees development and demonstration of higher plant cultivation technologies, suitable for future deployment on the International Space Station and from a long-term perspective, within Moon and Mars habitats. The EDEN ISS consortium will design and test essential plant cultivation technologies using an International Standard Payload Rack form factor cultivation system for potential testing on-board the International Space Station. Furthermore, a Future Exploration Greenhouse will be designed with respect to future planetary bio-regenerative life support system deployments. The technologies will be tested in a laboratory environment as well as at the highly-isolated German Antarctic Neumayer Station III. A small and mobile container-sized test facility will be built in order to provide realistic mass flow relationships. In addition to technology development and validation, food safety and plant handling procedures will be developed. This paper describes the goals and objectives of EDEN ISS and the different project phases and milestones. Furthermore, the project consortium will be introduced and the role of each partner within the project is explained.