High-tech solar greenhouses inspired by technology developed for missions to the moon and Mars could soon grow food in Arabian deserts and in Earth orbit, according to the space services company Nanoracks.
Nanoracks, known for deploying small satellites from the International Space Station, has just set up a spinoff in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) called StarLab Oasis. The new company, supported by the government of the desert-covered state, which imports 90% of its food, will open its first experimental greenhouse in 2022, the company’s general manager Allen Herbert told Space.com.
In addition, the company’s scientists will send seeds to space to induce mutations in the hopes of creating new, more resilient and productive varieties of key agricultural crops. This technique, also known as space mutagenesis, has been successfully used in China for more than three decades.
China is currently the only country in the world with a space breeding program that delivers benefits for the country’s residents. China has been sending seeds for trips to space, a few weeks long, since the late 1980s. In 2006, it launched its Shijian-8 satellite which orbited and returned to Earth 470 pounds (215 kilograms) of vegetable, fruit and grain seeds.
More than 200 space-mutated crop varieties with improved yields, environmental resilience and disease resistance have been approved by agriculture regulators in China since the 1990s including the country’s second most grown wheat variety, Luyuan 502.
“A great amount of the world’s sustainable and economically efficient food production will one day come from deserts, harsh environments and off Earth,” Herbert said. “The reason for that is the abundance of renewable solar energy. I believe that thanks to the technology that we develop, we will be able to grow plants more efficiently in deserts and in space because of the available energy.”
The progressing effects of climate change may make larger and larger swaths of the planet’s arable land vulnerable to unpredictable weather. At the same time, global space agencies are looking into technology that could sustainably grow food in places far more inhospitable than the Earth, like the moon, Mars, or other celestial bodies with freezing temperatures, no atmosphere and little liquid water. StarLab Oasis wants to harness and commercialize these developments to help turn countries that currently cannot feed their populations without international help into self-sufficient producers.
“A great amount of the world’s sustainable and economically efficient food production will one day come from deserts, harsh environments and off Earth,” Herbert said. “The reason for that is the abundance of renewable solar energy. I believe that thanks to the technology that we develop, we will be able to grow plants more efficiently in deserts and in space because of the available energy.”
The progressing effects of climate change may make larger and larger swaths of the planet’s arable land vulnerable to unpredictable weather. At the same time, global space agencies are looking into technology that could sustainably grow food in places far more inhospitable than the Earth, like the moon, Mars, or other celestial bodies with freezing temperatures, no atmosphere and little liquid water. StarLab Oasis wants to harness and commercialize these developments to help turn countries that currently cannot feed their populations without international help into self-sufficient producers.
According to space.com
