A Look at the Near Future: Industry 5.0 Boosts the Potential of Sustainable Space Agriculture
Ronnie Concepcion, Trevor Josh Ramirez, Jonnel Alejandrino, Adrian Genevie Janairo, Jonah Jahara Baun, Kate Francisco, R-Jay Relano, Mike Louie Enriquez, Mary Grace Ann Bautista, Ryan Rhay P. Vicerra, Argel A. Bandala, Luigi Gennaro Izzo
Abstract
Colonization of man surpasses the tropospheric atmosphere of Earth and is targeting to create new generation of people in space, particularly Mars, in the future. This relies on the metabolic needs which include oxygen for breathing, and water and food for astronaut diet. The key aspect to achieve this goal is to employ sustainable agriculture even inside a spacecraft as it requires additional food supply when transporting more people from Earth to Mars in this case, given longer travel time is expected. Terrestrial-based agricultural technologies that are currently being utilized are brought by Industrial Revolutions (IR) 4.0 and 5.0. However, the knowledge on the interventions of IR 5.0 technologies is still fractional in relation to its potential for space farming. This study discusses the comparative differences of IR 4.0 and 5.0 in relation to its impacts to farm labor, cultivation and post-harvest system, green products and services, and agricultural supply chain; a systematic analysis of space farms on spacecraft and planetary surfaces as the exact future of farming; the dissection of foreseeable challenges and the roles of government, private industries and academic and research institutions for interleaving IR 5.0 and space agriculture; and the future directives concerning IR 5.0 technologies as tools for bioregenerative life support system and circular manufacturing. Here, the context of sustainable space agriculture is limited only to the adaptable technologies. Hence, this study established a framework that IR 5.0 can boost sustainable space farming in terms of adaptive cropping system, robot-based operations, and carbon neutrality.