Apollo Anniversary: How Space Information is Being Used to Benefit Farmers on Ear

View of earth from Apollo 11 on July 19, 1969. || Photo by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

In partnership with UC Food Observer: The UC Food Observer is your daily serving of must-read news from the world of food, curated by the University of California. Follow on Twitter.

Its summer, the perfect time for stargazing. But that's not the only reason we have outer space on our minds this week.

July 20, 2016 was NASA's 47thanniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. As the world watched, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon aboard the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969.

Since that time, the world has come a long way towards understanding outer space better, and how our farming could benefit from it.

Helping Farmers on Earth

The International Space Center is providing valuable information to farmers, according to NASA. The Space Center's agricultural camera is capturing frequent images of the Earth, which are relaying valuable information on biomass. These are being delivered faster to farmers than previous remote sensor technology, and are being used to provide data on crop growth and crop yield potential. According to its website:

In Crookston, A.W.G. Farms Inc. is leveraging images from the International Space Station Agricultural Camera (ISSAC) to grow sugar beets, spring wheat, sunflowers and soybeans. The Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, led by the University of North Dakota, operates ISSAC from Earth to help farmers like Gary Wagner monitor crop growth for disease or fertility differences.

More about these efforts.

--

--

Supporting Precision Farming

NASA photo by Jordi E.

NASA is also working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NOAA on precision farming technology. According to NASA, the goal is to improve farmers' profits and harvest yields while reducing the negative impacts of farming on the environment that come from over-application of chemicals.

Learn more about precision farming.

Eating Veggies Grown on Mars

Meanwhile, if we do happen to find ourselves on Mars one day, we will probably be able to eat vegetables grown in Martian soil, reports Munchies.

A team of scientists at Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands was recently able to successfully grow edible plants-including radishes, peas, rye and tomatoes-out of simulated Martian soil. Read the story.

Exploring Mars Poster

To get you motivated to make the journey, NASA has created fun, vintage-inspired Mars Explorer recruitment posters that you can download for free.

There's even one for Mars Farmers. Download it here.

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/food-living/apollo-11-anniversary-how-space-infor...
	See more stories from kcet

Most recent headlines