Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 18 June 2024
Your weekly round-up of astrobotany news and adventure. This week we've got new NASA funding for plant monitoring devices, a 101-year-old plant pathologist and more on LEAF.
NASA is awarding funding to nearly 250 small business teams to develop new technologies to address agency priorities, such as carbon neutrality and energy storage for various applications in space and on Earth. The new awards from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program invest in a diverse portfolio of American small businesses and research institutions to support NASA’s future missions.
There were four successful proposals for the ‘Plant Research Capabilities in Space’ topic:
Acoustilytix: An Intelligent Bioacoustics System for Monitoring Plant Health
The Cornerstone Research Group (CRG) in Ohio proposes to develop an intelligent bioacoustics system capable of detecting and classifying the bioacoustics produced by plants when exposed to various stressors, addressing the need to produce crops during NASA’s future space exploration missions.
Plants have been shown to emit bioacoustics as a result of different stressors and provide a means for early detection of both gradually induced and sudden stressors that could impact grow yields and plant nutrition quality.
CRG will leverage a previously developed platform (developed for detecting and classifying rodent ultrasonic vocalizations) to create a bioacoustics monitoring system capable of detecting bioacoustics emitted by plants with integrated machine learning to classify different types of stressors.
This approach will improve upon the current state-of-the-art by providing more specific and timely information about the nature of the stressors, allowing early intervention and mitigating the potential loss of mission critical crops.
Au-TiO2-Al2O3 nanocomposites for multi-analyte detection and plant health monitoring
Goeppert LLC in Philadelphia is aiming to detect water, nutrient, and disease in plants by wearable sensors for generic plants with smooth or hairy leaves.
They propose to develop a concurrent one-channel multi-analyte detection sensor that is composed of thin-film Au-TiO2-Al2O3 nanocomposites (1-2 cm wide, 1-2 cm long, 10-50 μm thick, suitable for most crop leaves) to simultaneously detect water, ethylene (C2H4), and hexanal (C6H12O) on plant leaves (for concentrations as low as 1 ppm) based on the reversible adsorption, photooxidation (if applicable), and desorption process.
This system would operate on the ISS or in a crewed habitat, enabling in situ and non-destructive detection of gaseous molecules of interest by recording real-time changes in electrical resistance of the thin-film sensor when these molecules are adsorbed and desorbed on the nanocomposite.
The whole signal recording system will be designed to be miniaturized, easy to calibrate (on Earth and aboard ISS), easy to operate, and wireless (in Phase II). Goeppert will also provide detailed instruction on its calibration, operation, data collection, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven analysis.
Their instrument is designed to (1) enable low-concentration and multiplexed determination of inorganic and organic analytes from the emission of stomates on plant leaves, where more analytes in addition to water, ethylene, and hexanal will be studied after Phase I, and (2) establish a miniaturized, wireless, and AI-driven analytical laboratory for the health monitoring of plants in future ISS and NASA missions. Low-frequency maintenance and self-adjusted calibration also render critical values for space applications to minimize crew time costs.
Multi-Analyte VOC and Stressor Sensing Node for Plant Health Monitoring
Interlink Electronics in California have proposed an integrated system that includes an array of printed amperometric sensors for detection of methanol, ethylene and other VOCs indicative of plant health in growth chambers. This array of sensors will be printed on a thin polycarbonate film.
Since amperometric sensors are essentially fuel cells, power requirements will be negligible, easily powered by small solar cells and ambient light. Successful completion of this project will result in a flexible, self-powered plant health sensor that can be attached to plant leaves or integrated into the in-flight plant growth chamber hardware.
This system will allow spaceflight personnel to identify problems early so they can take corrective action before crop health, productivity, and safety are negatively affected.
The overall technical objectives of this project are: design, development and test in laboratory (Phase I) and real-world environment (Phase II) a low-power, accurate and lightweight sensor for monitoring the transpiration of VOCs indicative of plant growth and health, as well as the climate-related stressors in the chamber. The sensors must be sensitive to low-ppb concentrations, and accurate over a range of environmental conditions, including operation in microgravity and compatibility with cabin atmospheres.
A successful Phase II will demonstrate measurements that are reliable indicators of plant health, with deliverable prototypes for NASA testing, ready for in-flight demonstration.
Sensors for Precision Agriculture and Crop Management Decisions
TDA Research in Colorado are working on wearable plant monitors that provide actionable data on plant health for optimized growth and production of agricultural crops, sensors capable of the non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of critical plant signaling molecules.
The sensors developed in this effort will acquire relevant data that are easy to interpret. The sensors will be inexpensive, light weight, low power, long lasting, and capable of easily providing data to a centralized data storage and analysis tools.
TDA Research’s sensors will provide plant health data which will be critical to the implementation of precision agriculture, were each plant is optimized for agricultural production. On-plant studies during this research effort will help establish the form factor of the wearable monitor and establish sensor data correlation for optimum and stress growth conditions.
As increases in agricultural productivity are required in higher density grow locations, both farmers on earth and space exploration will require wearable plant monitors to optimize agricultural productivity.
Learn more: NASA Selects 2024 Small Business, Research Teams for Tech Development and SBIR/STTR Phase I.
In other news...
BBC Sky at Night has a feature on LEAF, the Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora – the experiment sending plants to the Moon with Artemis III. The magazine interviewed principal investigator (and GotG Friend) Christine Escobar of Space Lab Technologies. She says that the crew will collect plant samples from LEAF before they return to Earth, but that some plants will be left “to keep growing until the system runs out of power, as long as two weeks later.”
Read more: Could astronauts grow plants on the Moon? One experiment is heading to the lunar surface to find out
Researchers from the University of Greenwich set up an aquaponic system to test how to supply Martians with food. They found that nutrients from the fish water can not only be used to grow plants in the hydroponic parts of the aquaponic system but also potentially in Martian regolith.
Read more: Fish and chips on Mars: our research shows how colonists could produce their own food
NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge is entering its final phase, and a group of “Simunauts” will maintain and operate the novel food production technologies during the demonstration period.
Read more: Meet the Simunauts: Ohio State Students to Test Space Food Solutions for NASA
On February 7, 1984, astronaut Bruce McCandless ventured out into space and away from shuttle Challenger using only a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled backpack. Formally known as the Manned Maneuvering Unit, the invention was a massive backpack equipped with gas thrusters that would allow astronauts to leave their spacecraft and float free in space for the first time in history.
Read more: The Inside Story of the First Untethered Spacewalk
Good communication is the key to all successful endeavours – whichever planet you’re on. Here at Gardeners of the Galaxy, we rely on SMARTY for our mobile communication needs. Switch to SMARTY - the simple, honest mobile network with low costs, transparent pricing and flexible deals - and we'll both get £10 Gift Cards when you do.
Also of interest…
What plant would 101-year-old plant pathologist Mannon Gallegly take into space? Definitely a tomato! More than 60 years ago, he bred the first blight-resistant tomato. The West Virginia ’63, sometimes called “the people’s tomato,” is still a seed-catalogue superstar and beloved around the world. Back then, the seedlings were sown in the garden of nearby Huttonsville Correctional Center, where inmates provided free labour.
WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture released his latest new variety - Mannon’s Majesty – earlier this year.
Read more: This 101-year-old scientist may have created your new favorite tomato (ot try https://archive.is/uVwrV for an unpaywalled version.)
Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) have developed a new system of affordable, mobile, and high-throughput plant phenotyping tools, making the technology accessible to a wider range of users.
Read more: Democratizing plant research: A new cost-effective solution for advanced phenotyping
CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) scientists have spotlighted the potential of Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF), a protein-rich extract derived from the microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana as an ideal ingredient for a wide range of food and feed applications.
Read more: CSIR-IICT scientists identify microalgae as a potential protein supplement
Gastro Obscura has a celebration of all things strawberry, looking at the origins of the fascinating fruit and strawberry shortcake.
Read more: How Will You Celebrate Strawberry Season?
Denmark’s Vejle fjord is suffering from eutrophication -- a process in which nutrients, often from land run-off, accumulate in a body of water and lead to increased growth of microorganisms and algae. But under a white tent on the shores of a polluted Danish fjord, volunteers and researchers prepare slender green shoots of eelgrass to be planted on the seabed to help restore the site's damaged ecosystem.
Read more: Underwater gardeners plant eelgrass to save 'dead' Danish fjord
Goldenrod can perceive other plants nearby without ever touching them, by sensing far-red light ratios reflected off leaves. When goldenrod is eaten by herbivores, it adapts its response based on whether another plant is nearby. Is this kind of flexible, real-time, adaptive response a sign of intelligence in plants?
Read more: Are plants intelligent? It depends on the definition
The Yale Ancient Pharmacology Program (YAPP) is a multidisciplinary initiative that harnesses ethnography, science, and technology to uncover evidence of how people lived thousands of years ago. This summer, the group will hunt for archaeological sites and plant specimens that could potentially yield exciting discoveries about medicines, olive oil, wine, perfumes, and other concoctions produced and consumed by the ancient inhabitants of Antikyra, a port on the Gulf of Corinth.
Read more: Blend of machine learning, botany unlocks secrets of ancient Greece
Researchers discovered that ferns, like flowering plants, evolved nectaries to attract ant bodyguards around 135 million years ago. This evolutionary adaptation occurred as ferns moved from the forest floor to tree canopies, demonstrating parallel evolutionary paths with flowering plants.
Read more: Scientists Reveal Origins of Plant-Ant Partnerships 135 Million Years Ago
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Ex solo ad astra,
Emma (Space Gardener)