Oxygen farms in space stations?

Question

hi does anyone know of any tests that have benn conducted to find out the oxygen consumption/usage of a person in space and compare that to any tests regarding the oxygen output of a certain amount of foalege. because i was woundering would it be possible to have a farm of plants inside a space station that would be able to produce enough oxygen to sustain the life of a small group of humans? and how much foalage would that require? wat would be the best plant?

Answer 1

It very much is possible--good thinking on your part.

I would suggest you dig around onNASA's site (nasa.gov).  Its not  an area I know much about, other that they have done extensive research.  Certain types of plants do better.  The key is that the amount of oxygen produced is related to how fast they grow, because the oxygen comes from CO2 the plants take out of the air. They use the carbon as building material and release the oxygen. So fast-growing plants are best.  The really nice thing about this is that many food plants are also high oxygen producers--so your "oxygen farm" can also provide food.

Also check out this Wikipedia site about the Biosphere project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

Finally, google "Biosphere" and you'll get a lot of hits on this and other related research projects.

Answer 2

spacemens are using chloralla plan'ts to get oxygen

Answer 3

honestly, i don't know what you are saying. why don't you try to ask this question in other categories that deals with sciences or astronomy. you will get more accurate answers there.

Have a nice day!

Answer 4

Plants can only use about 7% of the energy in light to photosyntesize, solar cells are more efficient. and plants also require some waatre, containing system, and more.

I believe the use of energy, retrieved directly from the sun, and used to convert CO2 to O2 would be more efficient, although I agree that a forset in a space station would be nicer.