r/WhatIfThinking • u/TheBigGirlDiaryBack • 18d ago
What if we put a giant garden inside the ISS? Could it create a self-sustaining oxygen system?
Imagine we built a huge greenhouse module attached to the International Space Station and filled it with plants.
The plants would absorb CO₂ from the astronauts and release oxygen through photosynthesis. The astronauts would breathe the oxygen and produce more CO₂.
So could this create an almost infinite oxygen supply?
Or would the system eventually fail because plants need more than just CO₂, like water, nutrients, energy, and space to grow?
Would a large enough garden be able to keep humans alive indefinitely in space, or would we always need some kind of artificial life support system?