Neumayer III station must have an indoor garden

with the Alfred Wegener Institute “We learned everything we wanted to know,” said Daniel Schubert, the DLR Institute for Space Systems and head of the “Eden ISS” project. “It’s time to try something new.”

Together with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will develop a new garden over the next few years. It is to be integrated as an indoor garden into the Neumayer III station operated by AWI for decades. Garden container “Eden ISS” is 400 meters from the researcher base. “It turns out that there is no point in wearing a protective suit and walking about a kilometer to harvest lettuce,” said Schubert.

Research for Missions to Mars

In the 13-square-metre DLR greenhouse, plants have been growing since 2018 under artificial light without soil and nutrient solutions sprayed – while the outside temperature remains minus 45 degrees Celsius. DLR is researching how astronauts can grow lots of fresh vegetables with minimal time and energy for future manned lunar and Mars missions.

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DLR engineer Paul Zabel was the first gardener to spend a year in the Antarctic. They were supported by the DLR control center in Bremen. In January 2021, botanist Banchek took over horticulture from the US space agency NASA as a visiting researcher. So far she has chopped up 260 kilos of vegetables, lettuce and herbs – the same amount as her predecessor Zabel.

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However, he had problems growing peppers. “We were able to solve it now,” Schubert said. Jess Bunchek brought to NASA special varieties that had already been used on the International Space Station. “This time we got great results with pepper plants,” Schubert said. Scientist Bunchek said during a live broadcast on the Internet that the crew really liked the varieties of sweet and hot peppers. However, it was difficult to breed spinach.

The results of a study on the psychological effects of vegetables on the ten-man winter crew at Neumayer III station are still pending. They are to be presented in spring 2022, after the end of the “Eden ISS” mission. But one thing is already clear, Bunchek emphasized: “Plants have psychological benefits.” It’s not just about the taste and smell. “Just watching it is a pleasure,” Bunchek says.

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