Two Greek students, Augustinos Pantazidis and Maria Kontogianni from the Agricultural University of Athens have invented a revolutionary device “Space Agrobox” that will allow Astronauts to grow their own fresh food of high nutritional quality and value in space.
“In a specially designed capsule it is possible to cultivate microgreens in microgravity conditions, making optimal use of the available volume,” Pantazidis and Kontogianni told AMNA.
“In order to find a solution to this, we had to respond to several practical questions during the development of the idea, which were related both to the particularities that appear in the microbial conditions and to the cost management of the gradual development of a product,” the students added.
The “Space AgroBox” could potentially expand the time humans stay in space and increase the duration of space missions, while paving the way for the first steps towards settlement.
The project was presented for the first time in the Act in Space national competition held in late May and ranked in third place. Team “gASTROnomy” as the student call themselves is a candidate for another four special prizes including AIRBUS Innovation Prize, Women Entrepreneurship Award, Space for Humanity, Be A New Space Actor, ESA: SPACE EXPLORATION.
