Innovative agricultural technologies

tested by researchers at the Neumayer III research

station
 Innovative agricultural technologies
tested by researchers at the Neumayer III research station

I. Introduction
Agriculture has been a vital area of human activity since ancient times and continues to be
so today. It remains the only source of food, an important supplier of raw materials for industry
and a major source of sales for its production.
For this reason, researchers are continually developing new technologies that can produce
the plants needed by humans in a variety of conditions, such as those presented in the article
"Abundant harvests from an Antarctic greenhouse hold promise for farming on the Moon and
Mars". In this paper the results obtained by a team of researchers from a research station in
Antarctica - Neumayer III operated by the German Alfred Wegener Institute of the Helmholtz
Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven - are presented. They harvested crops
grown in a greenhouse designed to test technologies that could be used in the future to feed
explorers on the Moon and Mars.
NASA botanist Jess Bunchek points out that "both the consumption of fresh vegetables
and the presence of green plants have an enormous beneficial effect on isolated explorers".
In this context, the topic of this essay addresses the benefits of agricultural research for
human evolution. Three arguments will be raised in support of this point of view.
The first will outline that the development of technologies for growing crops in
greenhouses in the Antarctic, which have unsuitable growing conditions, may lead to the testing
of experimental greenhouses on Mars or the Moon, as the conditions of the two environments are
quite similar.
The second will argue that the development of new technologies in agriculture will be
beneficial in providing access to fresh food in less fertile or non-fertile areas of the globe - both
for stable populations and research stations.
The third will highlight how the development of new crop breeding technologies could be
used in the future in urban greenhouses and vertical farms to help increase agricultural
productivity worldwide.
 II. The support of arguments that the development of technologies in agriculture
contributes to the development of mankind
First of all, understanding more about how humans could nurture themselves in space is
an important part of a larger effort to demonstrate the viability of long-term human habitation in
extraterrestrial environments. Growing plants in the southernmost part of the Earth has been an
area of study for more than 100 years. All of these efforts have helped to better understand how
to develop agriculture in unsuitable environments and have led to the admittedly limited
successes of growing plants in Antarctica. Initially these studies were carried out to provide food
for explorers. To create the right conditions for plant growth, researchers at the experimental
module at Neumayer Station use hydroponic techniques in greenhouses, as they cannot use the
Antarctic environment at all for growing crops. The researchers have designed artificial
conditions: special lights to provide energy, spraying the roots of the plants with a nutrient
solution and injecting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere while controlling humidity and
temperature. Irrigation and nutrient delivery systems work completely autonomously. Since
autonomy is a major requirement for building a greenhouse on the surface of the Moon or Mars,
researchers reported that they are working on developing a robotic arm that could use artificial
intelligence to cut, treat and harvest crops. Antarctic research plays an important role for space to
this day. EDEN ISS was able to produce fresh vegetables such as rucola, tomatoes, cucumbers,
peppers, broccoli and cauliflower. According to Ray Wheeler, a biologist at NASA Kennedy
Space Center, to fully meet the nutritional needs of a crew on Mars or the Moon, such a
greenhouse would require an area of 40 to 50 square meters per crew member and so far, the
Neumayer III research team has developed a 12 square meter greenhouse. Daniel Schubert,
EDEN ISS project leader at the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, stated that DLR is
already working on technologies that would further improve greenhouse autonomy as the agency
moves towards building a lunar greenhouse model on Earth by 2025 and by 2030, the space
agency hopes to have a design ready to use for building an actual lunar greenhouse. Therefore,
according to scientists at the Antarctic research station, mankind is making great strides in
developing greenhouses that could provide the food and nutrients needed by astronauts, but until
the project is implemented outside the area of the Earth, a much more complex self-sustaining
system must be developed and demonstrated to be able to perform.
 Secondly, the experimental greenhouses in Antarctica are small-scale initiatives aimed at
testing the feasibility of growing crops in harsh and remote environment of the continent. These
projects are typically established next to research stations and are designed to provide fresh
produce for the station’s residents, as well as to study the effects of controlled growing
environments in extreme conditions. However, there are significant challenges to building and
maintaining greenhouses in Antarctica, including the harsh climate conditions, limited access to
resources such as soil, water, sunlight and high cost of construction and maintenance.
Additionally, the greenhouses must be design to withstand the strong winds and low
temperatures, and to regulate temperature, lightning, and water in the absence of natural
resources. Despite these challenges, some experimental greenhouses, such as the Neumayer III,
have shown promising results, with crops like the rucola, tomatoes, cauliflower being
successfully grown in controlled environments. This project has demonstrated the potential for
sustainable agriculture in Antarctica and has paved the way for future research and development
in this area to provide the possibility in the future to produce fresh produce and reduce the
dependence on imports for people in areas with arid agricultural land or in areas with climates
unsuitable for growing certain vegetables or fruits.
Thirdly, researchers at the Neumayer III research station in Antarctica have developed small
greenhouses that have the potential to provide fresh produce to station residents in hard-to-reach
or uninhabitable areas. The technology used in these greenhouses is based on hydroponic
farming, which is an efficient way to grow fruit and vegetables in small spaces that do not require
the use of soil. Hydroponics involves submerging plant roots in a nutrient and water-based
nutrient solution or planting them in an inert and porous medium (mineral wool, clay, perlite,
vermiculite, coconut fibres, etc.) that retains the nutrient solution, allows oxygenation of the roots
and provides growth support for the plants. Although this type of farming used by researchers is
an innovative way to grow produce in all kinds of environments with different conditions
greenhouses or vertical farms face high energy demands due to the use of extra light, such as
LED lights. In addition, if non-renewable energy is used to meet these energy demands, vertical
farms could pollute more than traditional farms or greenhouses. The main advantage of using
vertical farming technologies is higher crop yields, which require less land. Another advantage
sought is the possibility of growing a greater variety of crops simultaneously, as they do not share
the same plots of land while growing. Vertical farming is less damaging to plants and wildlife
because it uses a limited area of land, leading to better conservation of local flora and fauna.
III. Conclusions

As a result of the arguments presented in Chapter II regarding the benefits of agricultural

research studies to sustain the evolution of mankind, it can be pointed out that the experimental
greenhouses in Antarctica represent an important step towards understanding the feasibility of
growing crops in extreme environments and towards reducing the dependance on imported food.
While there is still significant work to be done to overcome environmental and logistical
challenges and establish a sustainable agricultural system in Antarctica that can be further used to
develop greenhouses beyond the Earth's surface, researchers have taken a huge step towards
human development. Also, the technologies studied and applied by researchers to use
hydroponics and vertical farms to produce vegetables in controlled indoor environments,
regardless of weather conditions or soil quality, allow optimizing growing conditions, leading to
higher yields and reduced losses. In addition, these vertical farms conserve natural resources such
as water and fertilizers, which can be reused and recycled, leading to a more sustainable and
efficient way of farming worldwide.
 Bibliografie

1. https://seretransilvania.ro/ro/blog/post/o-sera-din-antarctica-
sarbatoreste-prima-recolta-de-legume
2. https://modernfarmer.com/2022/05/antarctica-agriculture-space-plants/
3. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/31017763.pdf
4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214552421000456
5. https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/antarctica-expedition-reveals-
concentration-greenhouse-gases/18509/
6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
264233786_Design_of_a_Containerized_Greenhouse_Module_for_Deplo
yment_to_the_Neumayer_III_Antarctic_Station
7. https://discoveringantarctica.org.uk/oceans-atmosphere-landscape/
atmosphere-weather-and-climate/climate-change-past-and-future/
8. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00656/full
9. https://farmbee.ro/blog/ce-este-o-cultura-hidroponica