New Delhi: Plants can play a central role in sustaining human life on the Moon, Mars and beyond. Scientists have outlined the scientific and technological priorities to transform experimental space crops into full bioregenerative life-support systems. Insights come from the International Space Life Sciences Working Group Plants for Space Exploration and Earth Applications workshop, held during the European Low Gravity Research Association conference in Liverpool in September 2024. Researchers, space agencies and engineers compared lessons from growing plants in orbit with barriers to reliable space greenhouses for lunar and Martian habitats.

Radishes grown in space. (Image Credit: NASA).

Plants have been successfully grown on the International Space Station, including lettuce, tomatoes, radishes and peppers, which astronauts have safely consumed. These successes mark an early step. The shift needed moves plants from nutritional supplements to core infrastructure that produces oxygen, purifies water, recycles waste and supports crew wellbeing in closed-loop systems. To guide this transition, the authors introduce a Bioregenerative Life Support System Readiness Level framework. This extends NASA’s Crop Readiness Level to evaluate how close crops come to serving as reliable, integrated life-support components in space. The researchers also reviewed plant responses t space stressors such as microgravity, radiation, altered magnetic fields, limited water and growth in lunar or Martian regolith-like soils.

Priorities to accelerate progress

The scientists have identified priorities to accelerate progress including robust Earth-based analogue systems, predictive modelling, synthetic biology, improved monitoring tools, stronger international coordination with open data sharing. No single country can solve these challenges alone, with alignment across space programmes being essential. The technologies for space will also benefit agriculture on Earth through ultra-efficient farming in controlled environments, closed-loop nutrient recycling, and stress-tolerant crops for cities, drought areas and resource-limited settings. Plants are key to keeping astronauts alive on long missions by recycling air, purifying water and providing fresh food. A paper describing the research is published in New Phytologist.