Space: ENEA’s fully automated vegetable garden for "analog" simulation mission on the Red Planet

ENEA is participating to an international mission AMADEE-24, Mars analog simulation in Armenia, which employs six astronauts for human-robotic surface activities and scientific experiments in several fields, such as geosciences, robotics, engineering, human factors, life sciences and astrobiology.

In particular, ENEA in collaboration with S5Lab research group at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome, realizes Hort3Space, an innovative fully automated multilevel hydroponic system equipped with specific full spectrum LED lights and integrated with a robotic arm placed inside a grow room in an inflatable self-erecting tent, for the cultivation of several microgreen species.

The Hort3Space italian project was selected because able to develop a modular and well contained small cultivation facility with a higher level of automation, to reduce the astronauts' workload, to reduce resources consumption, to increase waste recovery and recycling, and to maximise fresh ready-to-eat highly nutritious vegetable productions essential in supporting future human mission exploration of the Solar System.

The mission will be held in Armenia Ararat district and coordinated by the Austrian Space Forum, with the support of the National Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Armenia Republic and the Armenia Aerospace Agency. AMADEE-24 will study innovative devices and equipment behaviour, such as high-fidelity spacesuit simulators, hi-tech platforms for testing life-detection or geosciences techniques, evolving the know-how of managing human missions to Mars and Moon in an analog model region to understand the limits and opportunities of the tested technologies in different fields of application and to optimize their processes, to improve the technology transfer process.