NASA teams up with Tupperware, Techshot to improve plant growth in space
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Techshot, and Tupperware Brands have partnered to develop an improved system for growing plants aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Techshot, and Tupperware Brands have partnered to develop an improved system for growing plants aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Since 2014, astronaut farmers aboard the ISS have been growing a variety of leafy vegetables and colorful flowers inside the Vegetable Production System, otherwise known as the “Veggie” facility. In an effort to reduce the frequency that an astronaut must water plants growing in space, Howard Levine and his colleagues at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) began exploring new design concepts for the component of Veggie that holds the root structure of the plants, the so-called “plant pillows.” Research at KSC led to a semi-hydroponic design concept dubbed the Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS).
Now, Tupperware and Techshot, a commercial space company, have partnered with NASA to further develop the concept and manufacture spaceflight-qualified PONDS plant growth units for use aboard the ISS next year. Tupperware is applying its deep knowledge and longstanding success of design for manufacturability, injection molding, and food-safe construction materials to yield a system that utilizes capillary forces and unusual geometries to replace gravity. The result is a product that is expected to provide plants grown in space with a near functionally equivalent growing environment to their terrestrial counterparts.
With nearly 30 years of experience developing equipment for human spaceflight, Techshot is assisting with requirements for management, safety, verification, and integration tasks. It also is providing Tupperware designers with access to subject matter experts in areas such as low-gravity fluidics.
Up to six of the new units can be installed in Veggie at one time. Like the plant pillows they will replace, the PONDS devices are envisioned to be single use items, which will be discarded after the plants are grown and harvested in orbit. Initial units are expected to launch to the station in the third and fourth quarters of next year aboard two successive flights of commercial unmanned SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft.