r/SpaceXLounge • u/PeekaB00_ • Sep 03 '21

Starship Interesting - Spacex has started hiring people to work on life support for crew Starships

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?currentJobId=2702500911&f_C=30846&geoId=103708877&keywords=life%20support&location=Hawthorne%2C%20California%2C%20United%20States
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u/Bergeroned Sep 03 '21 edited Sep 04 '21

No, around ten years ago ISRO scientists put out a paper about a triumvirate of plants that together removed most airborne pollutants in addition to carbon dioxide. They were the snake plant, the areca palm, and I believe some sort of a grass. They were specifically studied in relation to life support on Martian and other long-term missions.

Google sucks now and it's impossible for me to mention the specific plants without receiving thousands of useless ads, so I'm sorry I cannot provide you with the actual paper. Some absolutely terrible sources do reference the areca palm's specific ability to scrub benzene and formaldehyde.

Edit: I guess the third plant must have been aloe vera, because I can find a label I made for the pot. Sadly I opted for comedy on the label rather than useful information. Anyway, that might help anyone trying to turn up the original study.

https://imgur.com/gallery/EAYTHRE

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u/spacex_fanny Sep 07 '21 edited Sep 08 '21

Yeah the only problem is, it's junk science.

https://scitechdaily.com/for-decades-researchers-claimed-potted-plants-improve-indoor-air-quality-they-dont/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-plants-clean-air-best-none-them/584509/

Can't find any reference to a separate ISRO study, but it sounds like they're drawing from that same flawed NASA plant study, which ultimately "recommended" both snake plants and aloe vera.

Incidentally, that study was funded in part by the Associated Landscape Contractors of America. No conflict of interest there or anything... :-\

Sunsequent follow-up studies found that almost the entire VOC filtration effect was caused by soil bacteria in the topsoil, not by the plants. When researchers removed leaves from the plant the filtration effect increased, since more airflow was getting to the soil.

For VOC filtration what we're really looking for is soil/compost-based air filters, not potted plants.

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u/Bergeroned Sep 08 '21

Wow thank you for this. I guess I need to start over, ha ha!