Sensors for Precision Agriculture and Crop Management Decisions

NASA is developing spacecraft and technologies for extended duration missions. The ability to grow plants in space is beneficial for food, oxygen, and human health. New engineered plant growing systems and microgravity stressors need to be studied and understood before they can be relied on. TDA’s wearable plant sensors will enable NASA researchers and astronauts to identify drought responses which could indicate potential growth hardware issues or harmful recycled water conditions, disease conditions which could spread and affect entire harvests, and nutrient deficiency identification to optimize engineered growing systems. As astronauts reach the moon or Mars and work to expand agricultural production, sensors will be critical to ensuring soil and nutrient compatibility, identification of diseases conditions, and drought. Early identification of such issues will help prevent crop failure, which would have dire effects on the astronauts. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that world food production will need to increase by 70% by 2050. To make this dramatically increased production possible, technical innovations in agriculture are needed. The potential economic impact of wearable plant monitors and the subsequent analytical grower management tools is enormous. Sensors that measure useful and actionable plant health metrics will drive agricultural research to improve crop management. Researchers will be able to use these analytical tools to better understand plants’ response to stressors and enabling precision agriculture. Ultimately, our sensors will be able to assist the grower by providing fine-tuned agricultural management decisions. TDA’s non-invasive sensor technology continuously tracks several physiological parameters providing crucial insights into plant health. Early detection of stress, triggered by factors like drought, nutrient deficiency, or pest infestation, would empower researchers, astronauts, and farmers to intervene.

Plants are essential for NASA’s space exploration campaigns because they provide fresh and nutritious food for the crew and decrease dependence on Earth as missions become more complex. Furthermore, plants are expected be an important component of future bioregenerative-based, environmental control, and ecological life support systems (ECLSS) because they generate oxygen, remove carbon dioxide, purify water, and recycle waste. Last but not the least, plants provide psychological benefits to the crew as mission duration and isolation from Earth increases. This proposed effort will develop sensors and technologies to enable a mechanistic understanding of their crop biology under various spaceflight stressors, while also providing a tool for successful crop cultivation in microgravity and controlled environment agriculture systems, greenhouses, and farmer’s fields on Earth. The wearable plant sensors developed through this proposed effort are complementary to NASA Earth Science’s efforts in airborne remote sensing technologies of vegetation for SMART agriculture and ecosystem management. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that world food production will need to increase by 70% to feed the world’s population by 2050. To address this dramatically increased production, technical innovations in agriculture will be critical. The development of an external, topical plant sensor to monitor stress response holds immense potential for revolutionizing agricultural practices. This non-invasive technology could continuously track various physiological parameters indicative of stress, providing crucial insights into plant health. Early detection of stress, triggered by factors like drought, nutrient deficiency, or pest infestation, would empower farmers to intervene promptly with targeted irrigation, fertilization, or pest control measures. This proactive approach could significantly improve crop yield, resource use efficiency, and overall farm productivity. The potential economic impact of the development of wearable plant sensors and the subsequent analytical grower management is enormous. Wearable plant sensors are expected to revolutionize agricultural data collection, according to the World Economic Forum, Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023. Wearable plant sensors, and the resulting analytical decision tools, promise to improve plant health and increase agricultural productivity. The wearable plant sensor technology being developed in this research effort will develop inexpensive, easy to install and maintain sensors, that provide straight forward data for easy interpretation which will provide growers actionable analytical metrics to improve crop management. Successful implementation of these wearable plant sensors will revolutionize crop production and help growers optimized agricultural productivity.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.