![]() NASA's research in controlled environment systems to grow plants was foundational in developing the modern-day vertical farm sector - indoor farms that grow crops in stacks without soil under the purple haze of LEDs. ![]() These systems are containers that can control the internal environment and grow plants without soil under LED lights. Space agencies have been working on specialized systems that provide the conditions necessary for plant cultivation in space. While there, astronauts will have to grow their own food. Soon, humans will go to the moon and eventually to Mars. Space biologist Anna-Lisa Paul describes how plants respond to stress, and what that can teach us. The findings of the research will help develop cotton plant varieties with a deeper root system to access and absorb water more efficiently from soil in drought-prone areas. Researchers at NASA sent cotton seeds to the International Space Station to understand how cotton roots grow in the absence of gravity. The new tools and behaviors expressed by plants under spaceflight conditions could be used to solve challenges facing crops in Earth's changing climate. Space biologist Anna-Lisa Paul describes plants as being able to "reach into their genetic toolbox and remake the tools they need" to adapt to the novel environment of space. Space is the ultimate " harsh environment" for life to exist in, including plants, due to such novel stressors as cosmic radiation and lack of gravity. Humans have managed to survive and grow plants in low-Earth orbit aboard several spacecraft and stations. It's not only lifeless machines that dwell in space. Satellite data helps us predict food insecurity threats or crop failures. Weather satellites help predict drought, floods, precipitation patterns and plant disease outbreaks. Sensors monitoring soil moisture can tell us when and how fast soils are drying, helping direct more efficient irrigation on a regional scale. Specialized sensors on relevant satellites (for example, NASA's Landsat, the European Space Agency's Envisat and the Canadian Space Agency's RADARSAT) monitor various parameters relevant to agriculture. Like mindful eyes in the sky, satellites watch over the farmlands across the globe day and night. Satellite monitoring is arguably the most realized benefit of space for farming. It is now increasingly likely that food items have been produced with the assistance of space-based technologies, like freeze-dried foods, or through the use of crop monitoring from space-based observatories. But one argument in favor of space exploration highlights benefits that do, in fact, help study, monitor and address serious concerns like climate change and food production.Īs access to space increases, the potential for terrestrial benefits directly tied to space exploration grow exponentially.įor example, agriculture has been improved significantly through the application of space-based advances to terrestrial challenges. Whether to spend money on outer space exploration or to apply it to solve serious problems on Earth, like climate change and food shortages, is a contentious debate. ![]() This article was originally published on The Conversation. ![]()
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