Development of Low Pressure Plant-cultivating Facility for Deep Space Exploration / 航天医学与医学工程

ABSTRACT

Objective To develop a prototype of low pressure plant-cultivating facility, for studying the growing technique of higher plants under low pressure in manned deep space exploration, so as to lay foundations for establishing controlled ecological life support system (CELSS) in low pressure environment. Methods According to detailed demonstration of technical plan, blueprint design and machining of components, facility installment, debugging, trial operations and verification experiments were carried out. Results Two sets of low pressure plant-cultivating facilities were manufactured, both of them could be used to cultivate higher plant under low or normal pressure. They worked stably and their technical parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, O2 partial pressure, CO2 partial pressure and water content of matrix were all monitored and controlled effectively. Conclusion Their main technical indexes meet design and experimental requirements, low pressure plant-cultivating experiments can be carried out with the facilities effectively.