Intelligent Aeroponic Microgravity & Earth Nutrient Delivery (I-AMEND) System for Bioregenerative Space Life Support and Earth Applications

Project number: 
22072
Sponsor: 
UA Department of Biosystems Engineering
Academic year: 
2021-2022
Growing crops in space is imperative to the advancement of space travel. A promising technique for this is aeroponics, which optimizes space and water compared to traditional cultivation techniques. This system will allow astronauts to control which solutions are interacting with the plants while in turn providing key nutrients and calories.

The I-AMEND System consists of a combination of mechanical components, electronics and biosystem techniques to emit water, nutrients and air along a crop row. The team developed an autonomous, controllable system that supports onboard sensors, cameras and moving emitters which can gently flow horizontally through the system. A Raspberry Pi allows the user to adjust the emitters’ positions via a mounted touch screen. Sensor data and camera footage are collected and accessible for informed environmental control and crop growth optimization. Designed to work in varying gravity environments, this system will help make long-term missions to the moon and Mars more feasible.

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