Leaders of a new research centre led by the University of Adelaide presented at the inaugural SXSW Sydney to share progress on its efforts to help establish a long-term human presence in space through the research and development of plant-based food and materials.
The Australian government has provided $35 million in funding to the Plants for Space (P4S) centre for seven years initially.
The government also funded a similar project earlier in the year, granting $3.6 million to the Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH) project led by Lunaria One, RMIT, QUT and ANU to research putting plants on the moon, and horticulture in extreme environments.
Professor Melissa de Zwart and Professor Matthew Gilliham from the P4S program discussed the centre’s purpose: to expand Australian leadership, collaboration, and capacity in space-inspired plant and food research.
P4S says it will also research transformational benefits for on-Earth industries and sustainability outcomes, aiming to offer new plant efficiency solutions for challenging Earth environments, while also sustainably producing plant-based foods that can reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint.
“The mission of P4S is to re-imagine plant design and bioresource production, through the lens of space, to enable off-Earth habitation and provide transformative solutions to improve on-Earth sustainability,” said Gilliham.
P4S is one of Australia’s contributions to NASA’s Artemis accords, which have been signed by 21 countries. The Artemis mission plans to put the first woman and person of colour on the Moon by 2030 and to develop the technologies required for humans to venture to Mars and return to Earth in the 2040s.
Why is Australia investing in the next space frontier?
De Zwart says there is so much to learn about earth from space.
“There is a lot of important science to be done on the moon, and as we progress in this research we could start to wonder if humanity is meant to stay on the little blue marble that is Earth,” said de Zwart.
Gilleham said the next space movement was being largely driven by interest from the commercial sector, and that Australia had very viable skills in the areas of agriculture and remote medicine that are highly valuable to the movement.
“Australia has a lot of experience in remote medicine, long distance treatments and the resilience of agriculture. The country has really well-rounded skill sets and therefore the ability to engage and provide knowledge towards this global effort,” said Gilliham.
Getting scalable food into space
P4S will look to determine how plants can be re-designed and re-imagined to maximise production in small volumes, and further, what crops are viable in space, and determining enough variety in crops to fulfil the nutritional needs of astronauts.
Gilliham said vertical farming could be energy and space efficient through the use of energy efficient LED’s, and that animal protein and even plant-based meat and cheeses were not viable options for space missions due to how processed the products are.
“Growing plants at scale is very difficult – which is why farmers and farming and agricultural knowledge is so important.
“We’re looking for the ability to store and grow plants, and also flexibility in manufacturing production systems,” said de Zwart.
The researchers say in order to prepare as much as possible for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond, harnessing the power and the organic design of plants is important in doing so.
