Redwire to launch first commercial and private greenhouse in space
Capitalism in space: The in-space 3D printing company Redwire announced yesterday that it will launch to ISS the first privately-built greenhouse, scheduled for a ’23 liftoff.
Redwire is developing this greenhouse for agricultural company Dewey Scientific.
During the inaugural flight, Dewey Scientific will grow industrial hemp in the Greenhouse for a gene expression study. The company collaborated with Redwire, contributing technical details about the 60-day experiment and describing its potential to demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, while advancing biomedical and biofuels research.
The long term goal is to prove that this technology can produce products of value on future space stations, products that can then be sold on Earth. That both companies appear willing to invest some of their own research and development capital in this project suggests they both believe there will be a strong viable market for these products.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Capitalism in space: The in-space 3D printing company Redwire announced yesterday that it will launch to ISS the first privately-built greenhouse, scheduled for a ’23 liftoff.
Redwire is developing this greenhouse for agricultural company Dewey Scientific.
During the inaugural flight, Dewey Scientific will grow industrial hemp in the Greenhouse for a gene expression study. The company collaborated with Redwire, contributing technical details about the 60-day experiment and describing its potential to demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, while advancing biomedical and biofuels research.
The long term goal is to prove that this technology can produce products of value on future space stations, products that can then be sold on Earth. That both companies appear willing to invest some of their own research and development capital in this project suggests they both believe there will be a strong viable market for these products.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I know hemp is a remarkable, and very useful plant, pretty much the entire plant is good for some use, and no doubt the scientific reasons behind its use are valid… But I can’t help but getting a giggle from the idea of “spaced out Spacemen”
( Although I’m not sure there is a smoking area on the ISS)
:-)
Aah, but can they make brownies??
Seriously?
Hemp?
Just to prove a point I guess.
All plants are 100% usable and recyclable. Hemp though is not the most easily biodegradable. And who needs textiles in space?
Any plant part grown in space and not eaten should be turned back into dirt otherwise you have to store it and throw it away. Then you have to send water and nutrient mass back up equal to or better than the mass you send down as waste.
Until we have a station with at least a partial gravity growing anything in space is just an experiment in techniques that will more than likely not be used for permanent habitation.
I would have guessed that large-scale crystal growth would be among the earliest microgravity industrial applications, before fiber growth. But perhaps the problem of returning the “produce” without destroying it is more tractable with fibers than with crystals?
My first thought of ‘greenhouses in space’ was “Freedom”.
I wonder if Dewey refers to0 Silent Running’s Dewey?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNBcmD3gnA
Chris asked “I wonder if Dewey refers to0 Silent Running’s Dewey?”
10 points.
Ah yes, in a ship named Valley Forge!
Teach the little Robots to play Poker and they start cheating