{"id":5380,"date":"2023-01-09T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=5380"},"modified":"2022-12-11T17:09:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T17:09:26","slug":"improving-upon-the-sun-led-lights-fuel-plant-growth-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/improving-upon-the-sun-led-lights-fuel-plant-growth-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving upon the sun: LED lights fuel plant growth in space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n
\n Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used in medical devices and for growing plants, like potatoes seen here, are used by NASA to grow plants in space. The U.S. space agency plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts.\n NASA<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nMichael Dixon<\/a>, University of Guelph<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever seen the film The Martian<\/em>, you\u2019re familiar with \u201cplants in space.\u201d The protagonist in the film, played by Matt Damon, successfully harvests potatoes on Mars to feed himself when he\u2019s stranded on the planet.<\/p>\n\n

Far-fetched? Not at all. <\/p>\n\n

Here at the University of Guelph in our Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF), we\u2019ve been investigating controlled-environment plant production and how best to get the most out of plants in terms of food, oxygen, fresh water and carbon dioxide scrubbing \u2014 in other words, human life support \u2014for decades. Since the mid-1990s, we\u2019ve been home to the Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture (SALSA) program.<\/p>\n\n

These research activities form Canada\u2019s contribution to the niche field of space exploration known as \u201cbiological life support\u201d<\/a> \u2014 or plants in space. <\/p>\n\n

Research and technology developments in this field include:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Biofiltration of indoor air (with terrestrial applications to mitigate \u201csick building syndrome\u201d);<\/li>\n
  2. Disinfection methods that leave no toxic residue;<\/li>\n
  3. Ideal candidate crop selection as a source of food on long-term space exploration missions;<\/li>\n
  4. Reduced pressure studies to develop low-mass, inflatable \u201cgreenhouses\u201d for the moon and Mars;<\/li>\n
  5. Environment control \u201crecipes\u201d for light, CO2, temperature, humidity, nutrients and water and, of course, a host of sensors of these environmental variables to facilitate plant growth.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Among the more recent tools in the pursuit of high-density production of a range of crops are light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a source of photosynthetic energy. In our research facility, we\u2019re working to refine and perfect LED technology. <\/p>\n\n

    \n \"\"\n
    \n A prototype of a high-density modular plant production unit with genetically similar lettuce plants growing under three different light spectrum regimes (red, white and blue).<\/span>\n University of Guelph, CESRF<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

    The advent of ever-increasing intensity and efficiency of LEDs has expanded their use beyond cars and street lights. We now routinely consider LEDs as supplemental, or even sole-source, lighting for plants. <\/p>\n\n

    LEDs have a unique narrow wave band of light that represents a small sub-section of the solar spectrum. There are many examples of LEDs that virtually fill the spectrum of visible light and beyond to include ultraviolet bands and far-red to infra-red components. <\/p>\n\n

    We know quite a bit about how plants respond to various wavelengths, and certain combinations of wavelengths of light, based on research with filters and other more conventional lights that include high-pressure sodium, metal halide and fluorescent lighting. <\/p>\n\n

    Improving upon the sun<\/h2>\n\n

    However, LEDs offer the opportunity to design a spectrum and assess the responses of plants to some very unusual colour combinations. <\/p>\n\n

    Among the suite of environmental variables that optimize plant production, the most powerful in determining just how a plant responds to its context is lighting. <\/p>\n\n

    Indeed, with the new attributes of LED lights, we can seemingly improve upon the sun in the production of various plant commodities.<\/p>\n\n

    \n \"\"\n
    \n Results of lettuce plants grown under the three different light spectra showing differences in accumulated biomass and expressions of anthocyanin (pigment) in the leaves. These plants also tasted different, indicating additional secondary metabolite responses to the colour of the light.<\/span>\n University of Guelph, CESRF.<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

    The latest research findings<\/a> on various spectral qualities \u2014 colours, in other words \u2014 provide details on specific responses<\/a> in some plants related to the plant\u2019s size, shape and photosynthetic efficiency. We can even modify the content of metabolic compounds that influence the colour, taste and medicinal properties of a plant. <\/p>\n\n

    Those medicinal properties have attracted the scientific and industry communities in the evolving phyto-pharmaceutical<\/a> \u2014 medicines from plants \u2014 sector. <\/p>\n\n

    Low-cost production of reproducible, high-quality medicinal compounds is the main focus of the sector, and the range of commodities is growing rapidly. They include cancer drugs, vaccines for a range of viral pathogens, antibodies and, of course, cannabis or marijuana. Cannabis has a new-found status due to changes in laws in Canada<\/a> and elsewhere governing the use of this unique plant.<\/p>\n\n

    But these technologies, especially LED lights born in Canada\u2019s space exploration research community, bring with them the responsibility to get it right \u2014 and the danger of getting it wrong is very real. <\/p>\n\n

    Early attempts in the recreational cannabis community a number of years ago when LEDs were deployed as a photosynthetic light source in efforts to reduce energy usage in basements and closets didn\u2019t work so well. <\/p>\n\n

    It became obvious to those early pioneers growing cannabis under LEDs that something was amiss. The vague idea that some red and blue lights would do the job was quickly dispelled, but the stigma of those early failures still haunts the proponents of LEDs in that sector today.<\/p>\n\n

    \u2018Refining recipes\u2019<\/h2>\n\n

    We\u2019ve come a long way since those missteps and misconceptions about how to use LEDs, but we have more work to do.<\/p>\n\n

    Researchers at the University of Guelph\u2019s CESRF have been working with industry collaborators in the phyto-pharmaceutical sector (Plant Form Corporation), the medical cannabis sector (ABcann Medicinals Inc.), the LED sector (Intravision Light Systems) and the controlled environment sector (Conviron Ltd.) to refine recipes of environment control to grow plants for medicinal purposes.<\/p>\n\n

    We\u2019re also working to develop the best management practices to serve these industry sectors and the Canadian public \u2014 as we seek to make the most of the latest technologies in controlled environment plant production.<\/p>\n\n

    And given U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s recent comments about sending American astronauts back to the moon and Mars<\/a>, there\u2019s every likelihood that we\u2019ll get to test our \u201cplants in space\u201d expertise some time soon.\"The<\/p>\n\n

    Michael Dixon<\/a>, Professor and Director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, University of Guelph<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

    This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used in medical devices and for growing plants, like potatoes seen here, are used by…\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":5371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,11,14,16],"tags":[391,35,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-5380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-engineering","8":"category-nature","9":"category-space","10":"category-tech","11":"tag-plant","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-the-conversation","14":"cs-entry","15":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5381,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions\/5381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}