Rendering of greenhouses mounted externally to the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock on the ISS. Credit: Nanoracks / Mack Crawford
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has announced that they are partnering with Nanoracks via their Agriculture Technology (AgTech) Incentive Program, an effort that supports the development of cutting-edge programs to boost the emirate’s AgTech capabilities and promote innovation.
AED 152 million (USD 41 million) of incentives from ADIO will allow Nanoracks to build the StarLab Space Farming Center in Abu Dhabi as an AgTech commercial space research center. The Center will be focused on advancing knowledge and technology about organisms and food that are produced in the harsh and alien environment of space. Nanoracks is seeking through innovations in space-based AgTech to solve key food sustainability challenges on Earth, mostly caused by climate change, which can help to ‘green the desert.’
Allen Herbert, SVP of Business Development and Strategy, and Head of Nanoracks, UAE, said: “Much of today’s technology used for vertical, urban and closed environment agriculture initially came from space research from 30 years ago, and Nanoracks is ready to synergise these technologies back to in-space exploration.”
A press release for the Center shows plants growing in Nanoracks’ proposed StarLab Outpost module shown below. Nanoracks proposed this same module as a core and habitation unit for NASA’s Lunar Gateway for the NextSTEP 2 deep space habitat competition (see our Space Habitats for Lunar Gateway story).
Rendering of greenhouses inside proposed StarLab Outpost. Credit: Nanoracks / Mack Crawford
US-based Nanoracks, the single largest commercial user of the International Space Station, opened its first UAE office in Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, Hub71, in 2019.
References
- Abu Dhabi’s AgTech Ecosystem Expands Across Land, Sea and Space, (Nanoracks press release) November 10, 2020
- Abu Dhabi’s AgTech ecosystem expands across land, sea and space, (Abu Dhabi Investment Office press release) November 10, 2020.
- Abu Dhabi’s AgTech Ecosystem Expands Across Land, Sea and Space, (Nanoracks press release) November 10, 2020
- Nanoracks StarLab Space Farming Center
Greening Earth’s Deserts & Turning the Red Planet Green
Question & Answer, (Nanoracks press release) November 10, 2020.