This was almost three years ago. I only went to see what’s new out there..was curious about vertical and hydronics tech.. and also there were people from nasa and ibm..so it was interesting to check out the available tools.
There is definitely more scope for automation and robotics and AI with indoor Ag and can be implemented easily compared to traditional Ag. I think I have some PowerPoint version of it somewhere. I will have to look for it. Soil Ag and robotics is my area..not indoor Ag.
Same. Former Biodynamic farmer (horticulture) and did a stint at the MDRS, I was asked by the director to come back as an Executive Officer under her for another mission with more focus on the Green Hab.
If you can find that PP and repost I'd definitely check it out.
Are you working on anything right now in robotics with automating Ag? One of the things that I think we've seen during COVID is the mass acceleration of automated processes in many fields, but I haven't seen as many in Ag then prior to this--mainly in harvesting, weeding but as you know maintenance, pest control and irrigation play a much bigger part in day to day operations and was wondering what has been done in that regard.
I wonder if there is anything for those of us with backgrounds in Ag and tech to do something at places like Biosphere 2 or at the Eden Project.
I've had to go back to Supply Chain since COVID derailed my plans to go to SpaceX and then hopefully come back and work at a more mature Squared Roots if it had a focus on Mars food production, but I definitely like to see something like that happen and maybe even get involved if I'm still useful.
I am working on small acreage automation and robotics with the stated goal of swarming cobots and pairing them with farmers who work no more than 20 hours/week. Small acreage = 100 acre hubs with 20-25 swarming cobots.
I am skeptical about growing Terra produce in space and even about us consuming them out in space. How do we even digest food in space? I want to know more about that. I want to know what happens to our internal organs. How we age and how we process calories etc.
We are likely better off 3D printing our food and nutrients and calories in space. And some significant space ready body modifications would be required.
Having said that..keeping it technical..I am more interested in growing food in hostile environments here on earth. Or Mars like environments here on earth for wool gathering purposes.
Eventually some produce like lettuce and strawberries will be exclusively grown indoors. But forests and orchards and creating eco systems ..and soil food web is more important. And we need tech to assist us with that to regenerate our earth systems. As we automate them for earth, many of them can be tweaked or exported for space environments. Maybe.
Growing for Mars or space pushes my imagination and many good things have come from that. My email is my hn handle at gmail. Feel free to contact me if you want to chat further.
There is definitely more scope for automation and robotics and AI with indoor Ag and can be implemented easily compared to traditional Ag. I think I have some PowerPoint version of it somewhere. I will have to look for it. Soil Ag and robotics is my area..not indoor Ag.