Plants could sustain humans on the Moon, Mars and beyond

Plants could play a central role in sustaining human life on the Moon, Mars and beyond, according to a new international Viewpoint.

The research, published in the New Phytologist, outlines the scientific and technological priorities needed to turn experimental ‘space crops’ into full bioregenerative life-support systems.

A team including Dr Giovanni Sena, Associate Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, brought together insights from an international workshop held in 2024 and set out a global roadmap for using plant biology to support long-duration space missions, while accelerating more sustainable agriculture on Earth.

The Viewpoint draws on discussions at the International Space Life Sciences Working Group (ISLSWG) Plants for Space Exploration and Earth Applications workshop, convened during the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) conference in Liverpool in September 2024. Researchers, space agencies and engineers compared lessons learned from growing plants in orbit with the remaining barriers to deploying reliable 'space greenhouses' as part of future lunar and Martian habitats.

Current, planned, and potential future space crop production platforms for the development of SpaCEA and Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) to support long-term human space exploration.

From space experiments to life-support systems

Plants have already been successfully grown on the International Space Station, with crops including lettuce, tomatoes, radishes and peppers safely consumed by astronauts. However, the authors argue that these achievements represent only an early step.

The new paper calls for a shift from plants as a nutritional supplement towards plants as core infrastructure: producing oxygen, purifying water, recycling waste and supporting crew wellbeing as part of closed-loop life-support systems.

To help drive this transition, the authors introduce a new Bioregenerative Life Support System Readiness Level (BRL) framework. The BRL scale extends NASA’s existing Crop Readiness Level to assess how close different crops are to functioning as reliable, integrated components of life-support systems in space.

The paper also reviews advances in understanding how plants respond to key space-related stressors, including microgravity, radiation, altered magnetic environments, limited water availability and growth in lunar and Martian regolith-like soils.

Twelve priorities for plants both in space and on Earth

The Viewpoint sets out twelve research and development priorities designed to accelerate progress in the field. These include the development of robust Earth-based analogue systems, predictive modelling, synthetic biology approaches, improved monitoring tools for spaceflight experiments, and stronger international coordination and data sharing.

"Plants are a key part of keeping astronauts alive on long missions: they can help recycle the air, purify water, and of course provide fresh food. Our paper brings together researchers from around the world to agree on the priorities and the practical steps to get there." Dr Giovanni Sena Associate Professor

The authors emphasise that technologies developed for space will directly benefit agriculture on Earth. Ultra-efficient controlled-environment farming, closed-loop nutrient recycling and crops designed to thrive under extreme stress are increasingly relevant for food production in cities, drought-prone regions and resource-limited environments.

Dr Sena said: ‘Plants are a key part of keeping astronauts alive on long missions: they can help recycle the air, purify water, and of course provide fresh food. What we've done in this paper is bring together researchers from around the world to agree on the priorities and the practical steps to get there. And the exciting thing is that a lot of what we learn for space feeds straight back into making farming on Earth more sustainable.'

Guiding roots without gravity

The paper highlights emerging research into how plant roots respond to environmental cues beyond gravity, such as electrotropism (growth guided by weak electric fields), a phenomenon that Dr Sena’s group has been recently investigating. This could be used to control and shape complex root systems in microgravity or low-gravity farming environments. Combined with gravitropism and hydrotropism, such mechanisms could be critical for designing resilient plant growth systems for space habitats.

A shared global challenge

The authors stress that no single country or space agency can address the challenges alone. Establishing plant-based life-support systems will require shared infrastructure, open data, and alignment between major international programmes, including Artemis, lunar research initiatives and long-running consortia such as MELiSSA and Plants for Space.

Ultimately, the paper argues, learning how to grow plants reliably beyond Earth will not only enable future human exploration of space, but also help transform how food is produced on our own planet.

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