In 2011 Intravision were invited to parttake in the InTICE R&D project; Food for manned space travels. In cooperation with CESRF we developed the 7-channel STAR lamps for the CESRF circular hypobaric Chambers.
The InTICE project overall objectives: To develop and test innovative technologies that significantly can enhance the reliability of controlled environment food production while providing a depth of insight into plant-environment interaction not yet available to plant researchers.
Categories
R&D Technologies, LED Lights
Timeline
2011-2013
Status
Completed
Location
Guelph, Canada
Partners
CESRF, University of Guelph,
COM DEV Canada Ltd.,
The Canadian Space Agency,
University of Florida
The project assed physiology and productivity in response to control of and interactions between (i) light quality and quantity and (ii) recycled nutrient solution quality. New developments in light emitting diode (LED) technology was exploited to provide lighting for plant growth in a precisely controlled environment while newly developed ion selective sensors was used to address quality control issues for nutrient solutions both for terrestrial greenhouse and space life support applications.
We made the STAR lamps permanently arranged on water-cooled aluminum cooling-plates. This first generation STAR lamp had 7-channels of lights, all within the visual light spectrum range 400nm-700nm. The LEDs were outfitted with optical fronts – with a 36° lens and a focal point at 500mm distance from the lights. The full intensity maximum light intensity was measured to be 10.000 μmol photons m-2s-1.
