How can space exploration help the environment

Skip to main content. Space News suggests that while, unlike President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama Hillicon Valley — Justice Department takes on Uber Former top officials warn democracy in 'jeopardy' without Congressional action on election security Democrats start blitz to sell infrastructure MORE , he will not cancel the current program to send astronauts to the moon, Biden is contemplating prioritizing climate change research over space exploration.

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Agency Insider. Don't miss a brief. Sign up for our daily email. Your Email. Contributors Become a Contributor. All Rights Reserved. Spaceflight, however, has the potential to be more than just a planetary escape hatch for eccentric billionaires. Technologies that recycle practically everything—that make water, air and food as renewable and self-sustaining as possible—are essential for current and future human spaceflight.

Then again, we already know how we are jeopardizing the planet and what needs to be done about it. Change is afoot: the Trump administration now wants boots on the moon by Some of this tech may not remain in space. After all, a surprising number of inventions funded or designed by space agencies have been transferred to the commercial sector. Growing crops in space is anything but trivial. But, says Gioia Massa , a plant scientist at NASA, technologies such as specialized lighting and advanced sensors are of vital importance onboard the International Space Station ISS , where experiments such as the Veggie system showcase energy-efficient food production.

That tech, Massa says, is now saving a lot of energy for indoor agriculture. NASA has also worked with Florikan, a company that developed a fertilizer whose polymer coating allows for a controlled, slow release of nutrients.

It is designed to reduce the runoff of fertilizer into the environment, which can cause ecological havoc. This fertilizer is being used in space, Massa says, and it has demonstrated its ability to enhance plant growth on the ISS. These products, tweaked for continued use in space, are also being marketed to commercial greenhouse owners. Building spacefaring equipment on Earth is a dirty business, with fuels, paints, solvents and other toxic materials threatening to infiltrate the natural environment.

When dirty launchpads are scrubbed with potent chemicals, EZVI helps clean them up afterward. Beyond the launchpad, the compound has entered routine use at chemical-manufacturing plants and severely polluted Superfund sites across the country.

A supply of potable water is also paramount for both spacefarers and surface dwellers. And water pollution happens to contribute to the deaths of millions every year, so any tech that could help nix that tragedy would be welcome.

Lockney points to the microbial check valve as a solid example of how NASA can assuage this issue. Remember the liquid you swish around in your mouth after a dental examination? That water is often purified by the very same valve to minimize the risk of oral infections.

Wastewater there is typically broken down with chemical concoctions. He and Pickett are now designing systems harnessing plants and microbes to recycle waste more sustainably, and these approaches may eventually help redesign toilets and septic tanks on Earth. As is the case for water, it is far from easy to make breathable air a limitless resource in space. Up on the ISS, oxygen is traditionally extracted from water that has to be brought from Earth, which is costly and wasteful.

Although on a far larger scale and with somewhat different operational requirements, carbon-capture systems are probably needed on Earth as part of a larger mix to slow down the pace of climate change. Before space exploration began, "there was no perception of Earth as a single entity and certainly no context for it in space," Lisa Ruth Rand, a historian of science, technology and the environment who is currently the American Historical Association and NASA fellow in space history, told Space.

Now, the view of Earth from orbit has become commonplace, but space is still changing the way we think about Earth. Over the past two decades, as exoplanet studies have blossomed, the connection has taken on a new spin as we identify more and more worlds around other stars — but still find ourselves liking Earth best.

That's true closer to home as well, where even as we continue to learn about the worlds around us, we fail to find life, much less vibrant, complex ecosystems. The new editorial calls for meeting the goals that governments around the world have already agreed upon at a conference, of protecting at least 17 percent of land and 10 percent of ocean areas by — goals that humans currently fall far short on, at just But those targets may not be what we need to keep Earth's ecosystems functioning, some planetary scientists fear.

Cordoning off land and seas to manage all the creatures around us isn't so different from building the type of artificial biospheres would-be explorers have dreamed up for other planets and moons.

The similarity could mean that space endeavors offer lessons for managing life here on Earth — but those lessons may not be as encouraging as we might wish. That said, there won't be an easy solution.

And even without ever having laid a brick or planted a seed on another world, humans have dipped their toes in the world of biosphere construction. Perhaps the most enthusiastic experiment came in , when a crew of eight stepped foot inside a facility dubbed Biosphere 2 Biosphere 1 being Earth, of course in the middle of the Arizona desert. The two-year experiment was meant to be a self-sustaining miniature replica of Earth with 3, species, but while all eight crewmembers survived, it was a troubled experience.

One crewmember briefly left the biosphere for emergency medical care. Sweet potatoes thrived so much better than most crops in the high carbon levels that crewmembers' skin picked up a faint orange sheen from eating so many of them.