EDEN LUNA Takes Root in Cologne

Remember EDEN ISS? It was a greenhouse built inside a shipping container that spent several years in Antarctica. The idea was to help develop controlled environment agriculture technologies for use in hostile environments on Earth, the International Space Station (ISS), and future spacecraft and Moon/Mars bases.

Read more about EDEN ISS:Growing food in the AntarcticExtreme Gardening: EDEN ISS NASA Plant Scientist Harvests Success in Antarctica

At the end of 2022, after five years in Antarctica, EDEN ISS said goodbye to the frozen continent and began the slow journey back home to Germany. There it would be refitted to take on a new challenge – but what?

Well, it turns out that EDEN ISS is undergoing a makeover and will re-emerge as EDEN LUNA! It will become part of the LUNA Moon analogue simulation facility at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, which will be used for research and astronaut training.

EDEN LUNA will focus on optimising the nutrient delivery system, including the Combined Regenerative Organic food Production (CROP) system. In addition, a new robotic arm will automate operational cycles, including data analysis and failure detection.

Wanna know more about the CROP system? Listen to Gardeners of the Galaxy episode 49:

LUNA will be jointly operated by the DLR team and the European Space Agency (ESA), and is expected to open later this year. It’s designed to “support the development, testing and simulation of new tools and equipment as well as new operational concepts for future human missions to the Moon and later to Mars.”

Inside the facility, analog astronauts will find a 750m2 regolith area, 60cm deep, with built-in drill test areas. It will also have a suspension unit designed to suspend astronauts and