NASAfacts

The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) is a fully automated plant growth facility that will be used to conduct 

plant bioscience research on the International Space 

Station. The system requires minimal crew involvement 

to install the science, add water, and for other maintenance activities. 

The system was developed by NASA and ORBITEC 

of Madison, Wisconsin. The system’s components are 

managed by and processed for flight at the agency’s 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The APH is a fully enclosed, closed-loop system with 

an environmentally controlled growth chamber. The 

plant habitat uses red, blue and green LED lights, and 

broad spectrum white LED lights. The system contains 

more than 180 sensors, relaying real-time information, 

including temperature, oxygen content and moisture 

levels (in the air and soil, near the plant roots, and at 

the stem and leaf level), back to the team at Kennedy. 

The APH will be launched to the space station on a 

Commercial Resupply Services mission and installed 

in a standard EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments 

to Space Station (EXPRESS) rack in the Japanese 

Experiment Module Kibo. Arabidopsis seeds, small 

flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard, will 

be the first plant experiment grown in the chamber. 

The experiment is called Plant Habitat 1, or PH-01. 

Before PH-01 is initiated, there will be a short grow out 

of Dwarf Wheat and Arabidopsis as part of the postinstallation checkout on the space station.

The large, enclosed chamber is designed to support 

commercial and fundamental plant research or other 

bioscience research aboard the space station for up 

to a 135-day science investigation, and designed 

for at least one year of continuous operation without 

maintenance. The design of the plant habitat is based 

on an open architecture concept to allow critical 

subsystems to be removed and replaced aboard the 

space station.

The APH will be activated by astronauts aboard the 

space station but will be controlled by the team at 

Kennedy, minimizing the amount of crew time needed 

to grow the plants. 

The system’s Plant Habitat Avionics Real-Time 

Manager in EXPRESS Rack, or PHARMER, will provide 

real-time data telemetry, remote commanding and photo 

downlink to the team at Kennedy. The APH has an active 

watering system with sensors that will detect when the 

plants need water and keep water flowing as needed.

Advanced Plant Habitat

A test unit, or prototype, of NASA’s 

Advanced Plant Habitat is used 

for engineering development tests 

at Kennedy Space Center. 

Photo credit: NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

John F. Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899

www.nasa.gov

NASA Facts

FS-2017-02-132-KSC

To view the latest Kennedy Space Center fact sheets, go to http://go.nasa.gov/11KROr6.

Plant Habitat Phase III Flight Safety Data Review 5

Power 

Distribution

Assembly (PDA)

Plant Habitat Avionics RealTime Manager in EXPRESS 

Rack (PHARMER)

Backplate

Science

Carrier (SC)

Growth Chamber (GC)

Water Recovery And 

Distribution Subassembly 

(WRADS)

Air Filtration 

Assembly (AFA)

CO2 Bottles and 

Regulation 

(interior)

Interior GN2

Regulation

Fluids ISIS Drawer (FID)

ORU Component Drawer

Water Reservoirs

(Interior)

Environmental Control 

System (ECS) Modules

O2 Sensor Controller

Science Carrier Microcontroller

Rulers and camera 

calibration

Cameras

Light Sensors

Infrared (IR) Temperature Sensor Advanced Plant Habitat Components

• Structural Mounting Assembly 

• Air Filtration Assembly (provides filtered air 

to the system)

• Plant Habitat Facility Kits (includes hoses, 

water bags, syringes)

• Science Carrier (the tray that the plants 

will grow in)

• Growth Chamber (enclosed volume that 

the plants will grow in)

• Environmental Control System (ECS) 

(Growth Chamber temperature, humidity 

and air flow control)

• Fluid International Subrack Interface 

Standard Drawer (contains the carbon 

dioxide bottles, water reservoirs and 

gaseous nitrogen regulation)

• Orbital Replacement Unit Component 

Drawer (water distribution system, power 

system and main computer, or PHARMER)

• Growth Light Assembly (lighting system)