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MISSION OVERVIEW: BIOMASS PRODUCTION SYSTEM’S INAUGURAL FLIGHT TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.  K.M. Stolp¹, K.Y. Sato², W.T. McLamb³, K.E. Lagel², R.C.Morrow¹.  ¹Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC), Madison, WI.  ²Lockheed Martin, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA.   ³Bionetics Corporation, NASA-Kennedy Space Center, FL.

   The Biomass Production System (BPS) is an environmental control unit that allows the user to independently control humidity, light levels, nutrient supply, CO₂, and temperature in each of its four chambers.  BPS flew to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Atlantis on STS-110 (08 April 2002).  The BPS remained aboard the ISS until it was returned to Earth 19 June 2002 via the Orbiter Endeavour, leaving the BPS in orbit for 73 days and allowing BPS to complete a hardware validation and experiments.  BPS was occupied by two experiments, Photosynthesis Experiment Subsystem Testing and Operation (PESTO) and the Technology Verification Test (TVT).  The project team consisted of personnel spanning three research and support centers (ORBITEC; NASA-ARC; and NASA-KSC), combining knowledge and experience that pulled the team together during the mission.  Mission support from these centers was based on nearly uninterrupted monitoring of BPS Health and Status via down-linked data to the Communication and Data System (CDS [NASA-ARC developed]).  The CDS was integral in obtaining real-time data and project information directly from the hardware while it was on Station.  Included in the information that was received was real-time health and status of the hardware, each chamber’s environmental conditions and photos of the plants in each chamber.  The health and status reports allowed the team to make decisions based on real-time information, greatly enhancing science.  The photos allowed the team to assess the health and growth stage of the plants and to determine their interaction with the hardware and micro-gravity, and were used in an outreach effort that was based at ORBITEC.  Selected photos and data were placed on the ORBITEC website (orbitec.com) and were used by students to compare orbiting plants to their own plants.

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