In an exciting leap for both space exploration and terrestrial agriculture, Australian-developed plant monitoring technology is set to embark on a journey to space. Led by the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), the iLAuNCH Trailblazer project aims to demonstrate a crucial technology for sustainable plant-based food production in space and on Earth. This initiative builds on UniSQ’s successful research funded by the Australian Space Agency, which pioneered novel plant monitoring algorithms using machine vision.
Just as agriculture is vital for life on Earth, space crops are expected to be a significant food source in long-term space missions. Technologies that support automated food plant production are essential for space and hold substantial commercial potential here on Earth. The current project follows UniSQ’s groundbreaking work and further refines plant monitoring algorithms through the Autonomous Agriculture for Space Exploration consortium, led by UK company Vertical Future.
The iLAuNCH Trailblazer project brings together a powerhouse of expertise. UniSQ will demonstrate machine vision algorithms for early detection of plant health, using a unique image dataset of plants growing in the space environment. The University of Adelaide contributes its expertise in plant stress tolerance biology, while Yuri Gravity will supply a flight-certified plant growth chamber with imaging capabilities for both spaceflight and ground testing.
One of the most exciting aspects of this project is its potential for terrestrial applications. In collaboration with Australian agricultural business Medicinal Harvest, UniSQ will assess the technology’s commercial benefits for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) on Earth. Machine vision technology offers a scalable, automated solution for plant health monitoring, with enormous potential for both space-based food production and terrestrial farming systems.
The project’s objectives are clear: integrate machine vision with a space-ready plant chamber, capture images to monitor plant biology and growth in microgravity, demonstrate early detection of plant health issues using machine vision, and evaluate the technology’s scalability for commercial CEA applications on Earth. By delivering a unique dataset of plant growth in microgravity using machine vision, this project positions Australia at the forefront of space agriculture technology.
The iLAuNCH Trailblazer mission is a testament to the power of collaboration between industry and academia. By pushing the boundaries of space innovation, this initiative delivers tangible solutions for Earth-based challenges. For Medicinal Harvest, this collaboration provides an opportunity to trial predictive AI in their medicinal cannabis facility, with insights that have broad applications across controlled environment agriculture.
The partnership with Axiom Space will focus on advancing a novel plant stress monitoring technique developed by UniSQ. The project will deploy a flight-ready plant growth chamber to advance machine vision technology for monitoring plant development in microgravity. Additionally, the collaboration with Medicinal Harvest will explore the commercial applications of this technology for terrestrial agriculture, further expanding its potential impact.
UniSQ’s Centre for Agricultural Engineering, with over 30 years of expertise in terrestrial agriculture, recognizes the critical importance of autonomous plant growth monitoring for future sustainable food production systems. Controlled Environment Agriculture technologies are pivotal in addressing food security challenges posed by limited land availability and a growing global population.
Axiom Space, the space laboratory company Yuri Gravity, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space are all key players in this ambitious project. Their combined efforts will not only advance space agriculture but also translate these benefits into improvements for agriculture on Earth. As Dr Lucie Low, Axiom Space Chief Scientist, aptly puts it, this effort is about advancing global efforts toward agriculture in space that benefit every human, everywhere.
