Soilless cultivation of soybean for B ioregenerative L ife‐ S upport S ystems: a literature review and the experience of the MEL i SSA P roject – F ood characterisation P hase I

Abstract

Higher plants play a key role in B ioregenerative L ife‐ S upport S ystems ( BLSS ) for long‐term missions in space, by regenerating air through photosynthetic CO 2 absorption and O 2 emission, recovering water through transpiration and recycling waste products through mineral nutrition. In addition, plants could provide fresh food to integrate into the crew diet and help to preserve astronauts' wellbeing. The ESA programme M icro‐ E cological L ife‐ S upport S ystem A lternative ( MEL i SSA ) aims to conceive an artificial bioregenerative ecosystem for resources regeneration, based on both microorganisms and higher plants. Soybean [ G lycine max ( L .) M err.] is one of the four candidate species studied for soilless (hydroponic) cultivation in MEL i SSA , because of the high nutritional value of the seeds. Within the MEL i SSA programme – F ood characterisation P hase I , the aim of the research carried out on soybean at the U niversity of N aples was to select the most suitable E uropean cultivars for cultivation in BLSS . In this context, a concise review on the state‐of‐the‐art of soybean cultivation in space‐oriented experiments and a summary of research activity for the preliminary theoretical selection and subsequent agronomical evaluation of four cultivars will be presented in this paper.