Page 73 - Lighting Magazine July 2018

even modify the taste of the product grown. The rapid development of LED technology has made ne-tuning these “light recipes” easier to accom- plish and document.
Ma Mickens, one of the Postdoctoral Re- search Scientists on fellowship at NASA, turned to LED provider OSRAM for guidance a er learning about its prototype horticulture lighting system Phytofy RL. Together, with help from OSRAM’s Innovations America team, Mickens began devel- oping light recipes that could improve the avor and nutrition of the plants grown in the Advanced Plant Habitat on the International Space Station.
Michigan State University (MSU), which is also involved in the research project, has developed a state-of-the-art Controlled Environment Lighting Laboratory (CELL) for controlling and schedul- ing light quality and color depending on the crop being grown. The success of that system would os- tensibly lead to the production of more avorful, nutrient-rich crops for vertical farming applica- tions here on earth.
MSU is responsible for developing the light recipes that NASA uses to optimize crops for cer- tain traits such as larger fruit, vibrant colors, and more nutritious leaves. \[Fun fact: light recipes with more blue light yield plants with smaller (yet more nutritious) leaves, while more red light is best for growing longer stems and for owering plants.\]
For the NASA project, OSRAM developed a customized version of Phytofy RL. The smart light- ing so ware – coupled with a unique set-up of connected grow light xtures – supplements the lighting technology used in NASA’s Food Produc- tion Research. All of Phytofy’s so ware, hardware, and LEDs were developed by OSRAM to irradiate the speci c wavelengths needed for the optimum growth of a wide variety of plants and owers, al- lowing the light to be adapted speci cally for the needs of various crops.
NASA was introduced to OSRAM through Hort Americas, which works closely with leading manu- facturers to provide North American greenhouse growers, vertical farmers, and researchers with
Astronauts began growing crops on orbit in the 1970s for research purposes.
Final froNtiEr
july 2018 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 71