Agro-Engineering Methodology Analysis of Nutritional Values of Solanum Lycopersicum Var. Cerasiforme under Simulated Microgravity for Crop Applications during Spaceflight
Ricardo Barreto, José Cornejo, Diego Orihuela Tacuri, Jorge Cornejo
Abstract
In this project, Center for Space Emerging Technologies (C-SET) presents a proposal to study the effect of microgravity on the growth of plants with fruits like the Solanum Lycopersicum Var. Cerasiforme (Cherry tomatoes), and analyze the differences between Earth and 3D-clinostat simulator conditions focus on biochemical and physiological changes using: a) High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) for vitamins, b) Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy for minerals, and c) Morphological Analysis for biophysical variations. At the same time, the guided growth conditions and environmental factors (greenhouse) will be controlled in order to have reproducibility and repeatability with the aim to replicate on other plants and space crops, encouraging other researchers to follow this methodology for the usage in testing with other fruit species.