UNL works to launch ag in space

For a University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) research team, launching agriculture in space is not such an out-of-this-world idea. 

Over the past few years, UNL Department of  Biological Systems Engineering Assistant Professors Yufeng Ge and Santosh Pitla have set out to achieve the lofty goal of pioneering the first center for agriculture in space and finding ways to sustainably grow food on celestial bodies. 

“We’ll be on Mars and the moon – we’ll have settlements – and people have to eat,” says Pitla in a Nov. 6, 2023 Nebraska Today article written by UNL Communication and Marketing Specialist Scott Schrage. “One of the things we are looking at is how we grow food in space.” 

Robot farmer

The creation of a flexible robot (Flex-Ro) in 2019 by UNL’s Biological Systems Engineering Department, led by Pitla, kicked off the project. 

Flex-Ro, a compact multi-purpose tractor of sorts, can collect data with a variety of sensors used to measure everything from reflectance, plant height, temperature and humidity.

“Before humans go to Mars, we’ll want some essential resources there – and for this, we will send robots,” says Pitla. “Think about a greenhouse on a spaceship landed on Mars, and it’s  already started to grow food. We need a fully-automated robotic farmer that is doing those things even before humans arrive.” 

Cosmic challenges

The challenges of growing food in space will exist with or without human care, however.

According to Schrage, Mars receives significantly less of the visible light powering photosynthesis and more of the DNA-damaging, high-energy radiation Earth’s atmosphere helps shield against. 

Additionally, the temperature fluctuates wildly, with a summer day reaching a comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit, then plummeting to 100 degrees below zero at night.

Mars also only offers 38 percent of Earth’s gravity, making it tricky to direct the flow of irrigation, and the soil – known as regolith – is a combination of rock fragments, dust and glass-fused minerals with little to no nutrients, Schrage notes. 

Research done at UNL’s Greenhouse Innovation Center by Doctoral Student Cassie Palmer analyzed soybean growth in imitation regolith compared to conventional soil.

“Unfortunately, the shoots of the lunar-planted soybean struggled mightily to sprout throughout a 40-day span,” Schrage reports. “Its roots did the same, though they also outpaced the relative growth of the shoots, apparently in a futile attempt to find nutrients Palmer would show to be missing from the regolith.”

Schrage further notes the imitation regolith tended to solidify when watered, which damaged the plants’ root caps responsible for root migration and nutrient uptake.

Galactic greenhouse

Because space is so harsh, Pitla and his team of researchers are looking at a way to grow crops in a controlled environment, such as a small-scale version of a greenhouse.

David Jones, a member of the team and a professor of biological systems engineering at UNL, explains research done at the Greenhouse Innovation Center, where a combination of infrared cameras and imaging analysis powered by artificial intelligence occurs, would not be much different than that of space.

“The only difference between this and what we will be doing in space is, well, nothing,” he states. “Space is just another extreme environment.” 

Once the team decided a controlled environment made the most sense for growing food in space, they began exploring sensors to monitor plants’ needs, such as light and water. 

In a Sept. 11 article published in The Packer, Pitla notes, “On Earth, we understand irrigation, but in space where there is zero gravity, we don’t know how irrigation works. When the plant is deficient in, let’s say fertilizer, or it is stressed because of no water, we can do manual interventions here. But on the surface of Mars or the moon, it needs to happen robotically. So, it’s those types of scenarios we are envisioning and then trying to come up with an engineered system to address it.”

Pitla and Ge believe corn and other Midwestern crops may eventually find their way to space since leftover stalks and leaves can naturally fertilize soil. 

“Yes, the first generation of regolith is really harsh for plants,” says Ge. “But hopefully, when we keep adding the corn stalks, soybean residues or some of the waste coming from other processes, we can improve it to the point we can actually grow plants.” 

According to The Packer, while the UNL researchers hope to one day grow the first acre of corn on Mars’ soil, they are first focusing on growing leafy greens like lettuce. 

“It is out of this world – it’s very exciting,” says Pitla. “I think it’s a very bold idea, but we know over the last decade we have made a lot of advancements going into space and with large rocket launchings using reusable rockets. I see a day where we will have settlements on space, so I think it’s all very exciting.”

Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.