[SpaceProgram] You’ve been selected as Space Apps 2016 Top 25 People’s Choice: cress.space – a growing community

[Michael P Weber II]

On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 3:05 AM, Michael Turner
<michael.eugene.turner at gmail.com> wrote:
> Whether intentional or not, the choice of watercress could be very
> space-relevant.
>
> (1) Biosphere II saw the direct participation of the late Roy Walford, MD, a
> pioneer self-experimenter in CRON (calorie restriction with optimal
> nutrition) as a strategy for life extension. This research interested the
> Biosphere II organizers because, in feeding long-duration space mission
> participants, fewer calories eaten means, to a good first approximation,
> less mass for the ecological life support system, leading to lower mission
> cost, etc.
>
> (2) Research into how CRON appears to increase lifespans (in part by
> reducing cancer risk -- a big issue in space travel because of space
> radiation) reveals that it's more about protein restriction than about
> calorie restriction per se.
>
> (3) Further research has suggested that it's specifically reduction of
> methionine intake that is the main driver of life extension in CRON (hence,
> presumably, lower cancer risk);
>
> (4) High-glycine diets sop up excess methionine. (To be sure: methionine is
> an essential amino acid; glycine is not. But it seems that with methionine,
> you can get too much of a good thing.)
>
> (5) Watercress is very high in glycine, quite low in methionine. Watercress
> might be ideal for offsetting the cancer risks from space radiation in
> long-duration space missions.
>
> I think a good next step in such work would be to try to optimize watercress
> production in an aeroponic rather than a hydroponic style. Hydroponics is
> great, highly productive, but ... water is heavy. Aeroponics can give you
> much of the benefit of hydroponics but with a fraction of the equipment
> mass. Aeroponics should be more adaptable to low-g and microgravity
> environments since it's not gravity-dependent -- it's basically just the
> deposition of nutrient-enriched mist droplets on plant roots. Aeroponics may
> have gotten its start from NASA funding.
>
>
> Regards,
> Michael Turner
> Executive Director
> Project Persephone
> K-1 bldg 3F
> 7-2-6 Nishishinjuku
> Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0023
> Tel: +81 (3) 6890-1140
> Fax: +81 (3) 6890-1158
> Mobile: +81 (90) 5203-8682
> turner at projectpersephone.org
> http://www.projectpersephone.org/
>
> "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward
> together in the same direction." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
>
> On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 4:35 PM, Michael Turner


Michael,

Are you going to take over the list then?