Deep space travel is creeping ever closer to becoming a reality and one of the biggest challenges faced, apart from actually getting astronauts to their destination, is providing a constant supply of fresh food, water and air. An ambitious project by students at the University of Colorado and Colorado State University looks take of all of these with one foul swoop.

Every year NASA hosts their X-Hab Competition, it’s a platform for university students to work on artificial environments and deep space habitats and concepts which could one day be used by real astronauts. This year, NASA picked a team from the University of Colorado Boulder to work on a remotely operable, robotic garden, and what they’ve come up with is nothing short of amazing.

The completed project will be able to grow, harvest and compost a variety of plants which astronauts can cultivate for food. The plants would also purify water and provide oxygen.

Basically it’s almost an entire, self-contained eco-system. Not only will it provide sustenance, but it also offers an engaging activity to entertain lonely deep space travelers.

[T]he responsibility can be a psychological boost, according to the CU students. Choosing which tasks to automate and which to do manually, like picking the fruit, are part of the project, according to aerospace engineering sciences graduate student Christine Fanchiang, who is co-leading the Colorado team’s effort.

The project is still in early development though and by the time it is completed it will be able to autonomously plant seeds, monitor growth, harvest plants and process and recycle waste.

The team already have a working prototype and have received a $40 000 grant from NASA to “deliver an operable design by the [northern] summer of 2013.”

[Source: Pop Sci, PC World]