Deep Space Habitation
Our off-Earth habitation research utilises the extensive agricultural expertise held at Waite Research Institute and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine to develop plants that will thrive in the highly controlled space environment.
These “space plants” will be the precursors to food, medicines and advanced materials critical to ensuring the health and well-being of mission crews. They also will be a key component of the habitation modules, helping to maintain the living environment and managing waste.
Off-Earth habitation research also investigates a range of technologies and processes to develop the highly-efficient growth environments required to produce these plants in such hostile environments.
Find out about our Off-Earth Habitation projects and how we are addressing the challenges of safe and sustainable long term space exploration.
Projects
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Space Agriculture
Project: Adapting plants to enable deep and long duration space habitation | Lead Researchers: Professor Matthew Gilliham & Associate Professor Jenny Mortimer
Project: From Moon Materials to High Performance Products: Ultra Purfication of Resources and their Manufacturing as Medicinal Formulations | Lead Researchers: Quy Don Tran, Nam Nghiep Tran, Volker Hessel
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Humans in Space
Project: Lunar Architecture
Lead Researcher: Dr Amit SrivastavaProject: Stellar Psychology
Lead Researchers: Cognitive Sciences: Associate Professor Carolyn Semmler, Dr Rachel Searston, Dr Rachel Stephens and Dr Anastasia Ejova. Clinical and Health Psychology: Associate Professor Melissa Oxlad and Professor Deborah TurnbullProject: Indoor environment design to stimulate astronaut cognition
Lead Researchers: Professor Veronica Soebarto; Professor Volker HesselProject: Enrichment of space-grown plants with medicinal compounds
Lead Researchers: Professor Matthew Gilliham; Professor Volker Hessel; Associate Professor Jenny MortimerProject: Sourcing medicinal excipient materials of interest in extreme environments from local resources
Lead Researchers: Professor Volker Hessel; Dr Nam Nghiep Tran; Professor Nigel CookProject: Developing cosmic-ray and microgravity stable liquid medicinal nanoformulations
Lead Researchers: Professor Volker Hessel; Professor Chun-Xia ZhaoProject: Foods for Space and Remote Off-Sites on Earth: Late Stage Customisation of Food Materials in Extreme Environments | Lead Researchers: George Warne, Nam Nghiep Tran, Volker Hessel, Ian Fisk
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Space Law
Project: Legal and governance frameworks for human habitation of outer space | Lead Researcher: Professor Melissa de Zwart
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Manufacturing for Space
Project: Manufacturing Vehicles for Space Launching and Exploration | Lead Researcher: Associate Professor Ling Yin
Project: Microfluidics with core-shell beads: handling liquids like solids (ARC Discovery DP220100261) | Lead Researcher: Professor Volker Hessel
Project: Studies of Emulsion Dynamics under Microgravity Conditions in order to Develop Designer Beverages using Microfluidic Liquid/Liquid Contacting Methods Lead Researchers: Svenja Schmidt, Nam Nghiep Tran, Ian Fisk, Volker Hessel
(Joint PhD International Doctoral Training Programme, University of Nottingham)