EDEN LUNA

EDEN-LUNA is part of the EDEN research initiative. The aim of the EDEN-LUNA project is to develop and test critical subsystems in the advanced LUNA analog environment in Cologne. The DLR initiative EDEN, Evolution & Design of Environmentally-closed Nutrition-Sources, launched in 2011, is a research program that designs greenhouse concepts and analyzes their applicability for planetary research stations and habitats. The core of the technology development lies in Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) technologies and their transformation and integration into space-qualified hardware solutions.

EDEN ISS container prior to refurbishment
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FLEXHab outside LUNA
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EDEN-LUNA builds on the successfully completed and EU-funded EDEN-ISS project. From 2018 to 2022, EDEN-ISS supplied the staff of Neumayer Station III stationed in Antarctica with fresh food and also served as an important laboratory for technology testing for bio-regenerative life support systems under extreme conditions. The greenhouse was dismantled in Antarctica at the end of 2022 and transported back to Germany on the icebreaker Polarstern in April 2023. After conversion and re-qualification, EDEN-ISS will enter its second phase of life as the analog simulator EDEN-LUNA. The greenhouse is to be connected to LUNA at the DLR site in Cologne in 2025 in order to expand the analog lunar environment simulation and to test initial procedures and requirements for a lunar habitat with a closed (bio-) life support system in conjunction with the LUNA network. The operation in Cologne within the LUNA project is initially planned until 2026 and is to be extended. The operation is supported by the EDEN control center in Bremen.

The project focus is on the optimization of the nutrient supply system, improvements in energy efficiency, the potential implementation of robotic systems (DLR-RM) and the characterization of the microbiological biome in the greenhouse (DLR-ME).

For fresh and healthy food production in a life support system, both the quality of the plants and their health must be closely monitored. Only in this way can plant stress be avoided in the long term and the use of pesticides in such a closed cycle be virtually eliminated or reduced to an absolute minimum. The robustness of the components of this closed cycle is of crucial importance. The expansion, renewal and integration of intelligent robotics, data analysis and error identification and correction can make a significant contribution to this and makes such a system not only interesting for risky exploration missions, but above all also available on earth at low cost.

September 20, 2023

EDEN ISS greenhouse returns to Bremen and has a new destination

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse is back in Bremen after spending five years on the seventh continent amid ice, cold and polar nights.

Contact

Dr. Oliver Romberg

German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Institute of Space Systems
Systems Analysis Space Segment
Robert-Hooke-Straße 7, Bremen