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Roto-Gro Set To Blast Into Space With Food Production System
Roto-Gro is capitalizing on the space exploration boom, as it applies to a NASA challenge developing novel food production technologies to feed astronauts on long-term missions
Advanced Agritech Company Roto-Gro International (ASX: RGI) Is Aiming To Feed The World’s Astronauts.
August 9, 2021
Roto-Gro is capitalizing on the space exploration boom, as it applies to a NASA challenge developing novel food production technologies to feed astronauts on long-term missions.
Advanced agritech company Roto-Gro International (ASX:RGI) is aiming to feed the world’s astronauts as it capitalizes on innovations in food production systems and a boom in space exploration.
Roto-Gro World Wide (Canada), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roto-Gro International, has applied to the Deep Space Food Challenge as part of its first step into the space agriculture sector.
Administered under an international collaboration between National Aeronautics and the Space Administration (NASA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the international competition aims to incentivize the development of novel food production technologies needed for long-development space missions and terrestrial applications.
Roto-Gro’s application highlight’s the technological diversification and adaptability of its patented proprietary indoor vertical farming technology.
Astronauts’ food needs changing as missions evolve
Astronauts currently receive food from spacecrafts regularly launching from Earth, for example to the International Space Station.
However, NASA and the CSA recognize that as the distance and duration of space exploration missions increase, the current method of feeding astronauts will no longer be sustainable.
Future astronauts will be required to use food production systems on their voyages and be self-sustaining. The challenge aims to inspire the agricultural industry to help bring innovative food production technologies to space, reducing the need for resupply from earth and ensuring astronauts have continuous safe and nutritious food supplies.
The ability to develop sustainable food production is considered the crucial next step for longer-term human presence on the lunar surface and the future missions to Mars.
The challenge is not only about space exploration but also missions in extreme arid and resource-scarce environments on Earth. Like space, input efficiency will be key, including the efficient use of water and electricity to reduce resources needed for food production here on Earth.
Adapting Roto-Gro’s existing models key to space success
A new Roto-Gro rotational garden system — branded Roto-Gro Beyond Earth — will be designed with engineering adapted-off components from its existing Model 420 and Model 710 rotational garden systems.
Roto-Gro Beyond Earth will be a smaller, more portable version of the Model 420 but feature the injection feed system from the Model 710, significantly reducing the required resource inputs while maximizing nutritional outputs when compared to other indoor farming technologies.
Roto-Gro CEO Michael Di Tommaso said Roto-Gro Beyond Earth will enhance the already existing, unique benefits of its rotational garden systems, optimizing both the operational efficiencies and yield per m2, which is crucial to the development and prospective use of food production systems in space.
“The technology developed to form the application to the challenge is astoundingly demonstrating the vast applicability and sheer innovation of the company’s technology,” Di Tommaso said.
He said the company had developed several key relationships with organizations currently providing food system solutions for long-duration space voyages, along with others focused on using space to solve problems we are experiencing on earth.
“We look to develop and foster these relationships moving forward, further strengthening our position in the sector,” Di Tommaso said.
He said entering the space agricultural sector was a natural progression for Roto-Gro, supporting its vision to provide sustainable technological solutions for agricultural cultivation, critical to ensuring global food security.
“Food system innovation is crucial to our progression in space, and we are excited with the prospect of moving to the next phase of the Deep Space Food Challenge, while also generating other opportunities to develop and implement Roto-Gro’s technology in the industry,” Di Tommaso said.
Roto-Gro global forecasts international growth
Established in 2015, Roto-Gro is continuing to attract interest on a global scale.
The company recently partnered with agriculture company Verity Greens Inc. who has signed a binding $10M Technology License to purchase 624 RotoGro Model 710 rotational garden systems, with the first, flagship indoor vertical farming facility to be built in Canada.
The deal is expected to generate long-term, sustained recurring revenue with Di Tommaso hailing it as not only a “win-win” for both companies but a venture that works on a socially responsible level by helping tackle global food shortages.
“RotoGro will introduce our revolutionary technology into the booming indoor vertical farming space, while Verity Greens, utilizing the RotoGro Garden Systems and supporting technology, will operate with a viable and cost-effective competitive advantage,” he said.
“Verity Green’s first facility also serves to further its objectives – to roll out indoor vertical farming facilities globally utilizing RotoGro’s technology, not only to generate substantial revenue for both companies but also to provide a truly sustainable solution to address the issues caused by food insecurity.”
Lead photo: Pic: Giphy
This article was developed in collaboration with Roto-Gro International, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
Start of A New Series of Tests For Plant Cultivation on The Moon And Mars
The EDEN ISS greenhouse uses particularly robust varieties that were selected by the EDEN ISS Project team and from experiments at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and as part of the VEGGIE project on the ISS
MAY 4, 2021
NASA Seeds Germinate in
DLR’s EDEN ISS Greenhouse
Start of a new series of tests for plant cultivation on the Moon and Mars
Nine weeks of darkness and temperatures down to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Under these harsh conditions of Antarctica, NASA and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have begun a joint series of experiments on vegetable cultivation techniques for use on the Moon and Mars. Until early 2022, NASA guest scientist Jess Bunchek will research how future astronauts could grow lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, using as little time and energy as possible.
To this end, she will be working at DLR’s EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse, where she will put greenhouse technologies and plant varieties to the test. She is also recording any effects the greenhouse and its yield have on the isolated hibernation crew in the perpetual ice. Bunchek is part of the 10-person overwintering crew on Neumayer Station III, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).
First harvest – Lettuce, mustard greens, radishes and herbs
“The polar night will soon begin here on the Antarctic Ekström Ice Shelf. With the nine other members of the overwintering crew, it almost feels like we are alone on another planet,” says Bunchek. “In this hostile world it’s fascinating to see the greenery thrive without soil and under artificial light.” Bunchek is a botanist from the Kennedy Space Center, where she has primarily supported the VEGGIE project on the International Space Station (ISS) She was able to sow the first seeds in recent weeks, following a technical reconditioning of the EDEN ISS platform conducted by her and the DLR team. The first harvest, which included lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, and various herbs, followed a few days ago.
NASA seeds and new nutrient supply system
The EDEN ISS greenhouse uses particularly robust varieties that were selected by the EDEN ISS Project team and from experiments at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and as part of the VEGGIE project on the ISS. The DLR/NASA mission also aims to record and compare the growth and yield of the crop varieties under the conditions of the Antarctic greenhouse. An additional focus will be studying which microbes thrive in the greenhouse alongside the cultivated plants.
NASA will also be testing a plant watering concept in the EDEN Module that can operate in u-gravity settings, like the ISS. The system contains the water and delivers it to the plants by a passive method. “This will provide a side-by-side comparison with the aeroponically grown plants of EDEN ISS” says Ray Wheeler, plant physiologist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. In aeroponic irrigation, the roots of the plants without soil are regularly sprayed with a nutrient solution.
Crew time – a precious commodity
Sowing, harvesting, tending, cleaning, maintaining, calibrating, repairing and conducting scientific activities. Bunchek records every second of her activities in the Antarctic greenhouse with a special time-recording eight-sided die, as crew time will be a precious commodity on future missions to the Moon and Mars. “In an initial test run of the greenhouse during the 2018 mission, we found that operations still took too much time,” explains EDEN ISS project leader Daniel Schubert from the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen. “Now we are working on optimizing processes and procedures. We have learned a lot about operating a greenhouse under extreme conditions. We’re applying all this during the current joint DLR/NASA mission.” In addition to the crew’s time, the focus is on their well-being. The overwinterers regularly answer questions about their eating habits or how the plants affect their mood. “We hope to increase our understanding of having plants and fresh food for crews in remote, isolated settings like Neumayer III and ultimately for space” says Wheeler.
Eight months in isolation
On 19 January, Jess Bunchek reached the Antarctic continent on board the research vessel Polarstern. Since 19 March, the 10-person overwintering crew has been on their own at Neumayer Station III. “EDEN ISS is an asset for the crew in many ways,” says Tim Heitland, Medical Coordinator and Operations Manager at AWI. “I know from my own overwintering experience just how much you can begin to miss fresh produce. It’s not just about the taste, but also the smells, the colors, and the fascinating fact that something can grow in this inhospitable environment. That’s why there are always volunteers in the overwintering teams to help cultivate and harvest the plants.” The polar night at Neumayer Station III begins on 21 May, and the first rays of sunlight will not reach the station again until 23 July. Researchers for the summer season and new supplies will end the isolation of this year’s overwintering crew around the beginning of November.
The activities at the EDEN ISS Antarctic greenhouse can be followed on social media using the hashtag #MadeInAntarctica. The Antarctic greenhouse has Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as a flicker image gallery. Jess Bunchek also writes about her personal experiences of the Antarctica mission in the dedicated DLR blog.
How The International Space Station Helps NASA Study Plant Growth In Space
Food for crews aboard the ISS is prepackaged, degrades, and requires resupply. But what if astronauts could grow some of their own food in microgravity?
As NASA plans long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crews during their weeks, months, and even years in space.
Food for crews aboard the International Space Station is primarily prepackaged, requires regular resupply deliveries aboard cargo spacecraft, and degrades in quality and nutrition after about 18 months. But what if astronauts could grow some of their own food in microgravity? Researchers on Earth and crews aboard the International Space Station are exploring the idea by testing various crops and equipment to see if the plan could work.
NASA hopes to successfully grow fresh, pick-and-eat crops that are easy to produce and do not require a lot of extra equipment or precious electrical power. “Crews really seem to enjoy growing the food themselves,” said Howard Levine, chief scientist for NASA’s International Space Station Research Office at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “It’s a nice reprieve from typical activities on the station, and astronauts often volunteer their free time to do it.”
To date, NASA has grown a variety of plants, including lettuces, mustard varieties, and radishes – and learned a lot about how to successfully do so in the process.
Here are seven aspects of plant growth they are studying aboard the space station:
1) Picking the right plants
What grows well on Earth may or may not do so well in space. Before sending a crop to space, scientists must identify which plants to test aboard the space station. To improve that process, NASA started a project in 2015 with the Fairchild Botanical Garden in Miami called “Growing Beyond Earth.” The program has recruited more than 230 middle and high school science classes across the U.S. to grow different seeds using special equipment. Seeds that grow well in the classrooms are then tested in a chamber at Kennedy that closely resembles the space station’s equipment. Selected seeds that do well at Kennedy are then sent to the station. How they grow in orbit can inform the selection of plants for long-duration missions only minimal crew attention.
2) Learning to garden in space
Plants need a place to grow, and NASA has tested out a number of facilities to host a microgravity garden. One way is by experimenting with the Vegetable Production System, or “Veggie,” which is a simple, low-power gardening chamber that can hold six crop plants. Seeds are grown in small fabric “pillows” placed in Veggie. Crews then look after and water the plants by hand, similar to caring for a window herb garden on Earth.
NASA is developing another system, called the Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System, or PONDS, to work with the Veggie platform. PONDS replaces the seed pillows with a new plant holder that automatically feeds and waters the produce, but still requires the crew to do some cultivation tasks. Research also uses a hands-off system called the Advanced Plant Habitat. This fully automated device is designed to study the physiology of how plants grow in space in ways that require only minimal crew attention.
3) The right light
The composition of light that shines on plants can affect their size, nutritional content, microbial growth, and taste. Plants particularly rely on red and blue light to grow. Researchers ran experiments aboard the space station to see how different ratios of red and blue light influenced plant development in space. The experiments showed that plants in space grow well under the same light conditions preferred by plants on Earth. While green lights are not necessary for plant growth, they are included in plant growth systems so the plants also appear similar to those grown on Earth.
4) The influence of gravity
Changes in gravity can affect how plants grow and how many crops they yield. Plants can sense gravity using a mechanism that involves changes to calcium within their cells. Astronauts recently ran experiments aboard the space station to measure how microgravity affects these calcium levels, which could offer clues for designing improved ways of growing crops for food in space.
In the PESTO experiment, crews grew wheat plants to see how microgravity may change some of their key features. They found that microgravity alters leaf development, plant cells, and the chloroplasts used in photosynthesis, but did not harm the plants overall -- in fact, wheat plants grew 10% taller compared to those on Earth.
Station crews also successfully grew two generations of mustard plants using the Advanced Astroculture chamber for an experiment that showed the change in gravity caused seeds to be smaller and secondary branches and seed pods to grow differently. Additionally, the experiment grew soybeans from seed-to-seed in space, which produced larger plants and seeds.
5) Water delivery
One significant challenge to growing plants in microgravity is providing enough water to their roots to keep them healthy without drowning the plants in too much water. Numerous experiments have tested a variety of methods to achieve this, including the new PONDS facility mentioned above and the Plant Water Management experiment. The water management study demonstrated a hydroponic method for providing water and air to the root zone to help them grow. Researchers are growing plants both aboard the space station and on Earth to compare how well they develop.
6) How old is too old?
Future space missions could go on for years, which means the seeds that astronauts bring along could be far from fresh by the time they need to plant them. On Earth, seeds have a decrease in viability and germination over time. But how do the age of seeds and long-term exposure to the spaceflight environment affect their ability to germinate and grow? To find out, in January 2021 NASA grew lettuce and seeds from the cabbage family (kale, mustard, and bok choi) that had been aboard the station for nearly three years. The results showed that while the lettuce seeds did not grow well compared to seeds that had been in space less time, the mustard seeds responded better than expected to the storage time in space.
7) The human effect
Gardens need tending, of course, which means astronauts or robots have to look after the plants that are growing. NASA studied how gardening in space could contribute to the behavior and well-being of astronauts. Many astronauts reported they found caring for the plants a fun and relaxing activity.
“Taking care of plants can also help astronauts stay in touch with the life cycles on Earth,” said Gioia Massa, a life sciences project scientist at Kennedy. Massa’s research focuses on growing plants aboard the space station.
What’s more, astronauts say the time spent gardening makes them excited to eat the fresh produce once it’s ready. The excitement motivates astronauts to creatively use the produce as ingredients in their meals, increasing their quality of life in space and boosting their morale.
For more information:
NASA
www.nasa.gov
8 Apr 2021
WEBINAR - Food Safety in CEA Systems - September 24, 2020 - 2:00 PM EDT
Data will be presented on space-grown leafy green vegetables, as well as from a study with market produce and ground-grown produce to compare
Date: September 24, 2020
Time: 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. EDT
Presented by: Gioia Massa (NASA) and Marni Karlin (CEA Food Safety Coalition)
Click here to register
Dr. Gioia Massa, plant scientist at NASA will highlight some of the unique aspects of space crop production and the microbial food safety considerations of space-grown produce. Data will be presented on space-grown leafy green vegetables, as well as from a study with market produce and ground-grown produce to compare. NASA's preliminary Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) Plan will be highlighted and future goals will be discussed.
Dr. Marni Karlin, executive director of the CEA Food Safety Coalition will provide a brief introduction to the unique opportunities and challenges for CEA leafy greens producers, vis-à-vis food safety. Dr. Karlin will identify the areas where a risk assessment may indicate increased controls needed to ensure food safety; as well as the areas where CEA processes enhance the ability to ensure food safety.