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Indian Express
5 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Space to soil: How Axiom-4 holds potential to shape food production
Written by Purvi Mehta SpaceX's Crew Dragon named Grace, carrying the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew, docked at the International Space Station (ISS) last week. It is a historic mission in many ways, including for India, with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla marking a milestone for the country's human spaceflight aspirations. The mission will also carry out 14 days of microgravity research and technology demonstrations. Dragon resupply missions routinely deliver instruments to the ISS for Earth science. For instance, the NASA-supported CRS-30 delivered Signals of Opportunity P-band Investigation (SNOOPI), a CubeSat that uses P-band GNSS reflectometry to measure soil moisture and snow content — critical within hydrologic cycles and agriculture. Soil moisture data is indispensable: It supports drought forecasting, irrigation planning, and resilient cropping strategies in rural communities. The mission has also carried seeds that they will try to sprout in a petri dish aboard the station. These experiments help scientists understand how microgravity affects water-use efficiency, root development, and crop resilience. Insights from space-grown plants inform Earth-bound optimisations — especially in drought-prone or saline soils. Why is this important? Shifts in climate are driving water scarcity, higher temperatures, crop failures, and economic insecurity across the world. According to a 2023 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, climate extremes have cost global agriculture and its farmers over $3.8 trillion in the past three decades — roughly 5 per cent of the annual global agri-GDP. Technology plays a pivotal role in tackling climate change by enabling both adaptation and mitigation strategies. Innovations such as climate-smart agriculture, early warning systems, resilient infrastructure design, and satellite-based weather forecasting help vulnerable communities better prepare for and respond to climate shocks. Technologies emerging from space research — like soil-moisture monitoring, resilient seed strains, and controlled-environment agriculture — help our understanding on how best to predict, prevent and adapt to climate shocks. Space-based data enhances forecasting and early warning systems that empower rural communities to decide what crop to grow, when and how. The Dragon Grace mission isn't just a space milestone — it's an agricultural and climate-change catalyst. It will enable enhanced Earth observation that allows farmers to monitor crop health, moisture levels, and pest infestations with a high degree of accuracy, enabling targeted interventions (like irrigation or fertilisation), which increases yields and reduces input costs. Stronger forecasting tools and early warnings help predict droughts, floods and other climate-related risks, giving farmers and governments time to prepare and respond, reducing crop loss and food insecurity. Advanced plant physiology insights that augment our understanding of how plants cope with heat, salinity, or erratic rainfall, help farmers choose and manage crops better suited to changing conditions. It leads to the development of crops that are more drought-tolerant, pest-resistant, or nutrient-efficient. Space missions like Ax-4 lay the groundwork for climate-smart farming worldwide, particularly for rural and smallholder communities. As climate shocks intensify, bridging space technology with field-level needs is essential. So, for a smallholder farmer, who constitute over 80 per cent of our farmers, say in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the Ax-4 mission is not just a matter of pride. It can also lead to direct benefits. The Ax-4 mission unlocks new frontiers in climate monitoring and Earth observation and signals a transformative moment for agriculture. For the smallholder farmer, this isn't just a leap in space technology — this can be a lifeline. With better climate prediction, early warning systems, and precision data, farmers can make smarter decisions, reduce risk, and build resilience against an increasingly unpredictable environment. In a world where food security hinges on climate intelligence, this mission has a lot farmers can look forward to. The writer is senior global advisor, Global Climate and adjunct professor, Cornell University
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Nuclear war or asteroid strike will not end life on Earth; NASA-backed study reveals the real villain
If you worry about civilization's longevity and count the possible causes like climate change , nuclear war, or asteroids, you can cross those off your list of final threats. According to new research from Toho University in Japan, the real long-term danger for Earth, supported by NASA , is a slow and subtle loss of oxygen — and it's a billion years away. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack India orders nationwide defence drills as Indo-Pak tensions rise What is a mock drill & what to expect during the May 7 war-like emergency blackout exercise A woman spy who helped India defeat Pakistan in 1971 No, we are not talking about any plot of a post-apocalyptic movie, but a stark reality. The world as we know it won't end in fire or ice, but in the gradual disappearance of breathable air. While it's not something we'll see in our lifetime, scientists are taking this seriously, as the countdown to oxygen's extinction has already begun. So, what does this mean for the future of Earth's habitable lifespan? When will this happen 5 5 Next Stay Playback speed 1x Normal Back 0.25x 0.5x 1x Normal 1.5x 2x 5 5 / Skip Ads by by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dog licks arent kisses. Heres what your dog really means when it licks you. Novelodge Undo This NASA-supported study warns that Earth could lose its oxygen in about one billion years. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, predicts a gradual decline in oxygen levels due to changes in the planet's atmosphere. This shift is linked to the increasing heat from the sun over time. How will this happen The study, led by scientists Kazumi Ozaki and Christopher Reinhard, used computer models to forecast Earth's atmospheric changes. As the sun continues to get hotter, more carbon dioxide will break down. This will impact plant life, as plants rely on carbon dioxide to produce oxygen through photosynthesis. Without enough plants, oxygen levels will begin to drop dramatically. Live Events 'The atmosphere will return to a state similar to before the Great Oxidation Event, which happened about 2.4 billion years ago,' said Reinhard. This suggests that, in the far future, Earth's atmosphere could once again become rich in methane and poor in oxygen. What does this mean for us The loss of oxygen would make Earth uninhabitable for humans and animals. This process may occur rapidly, with oxygen levels falling completely within 10,000 years. Only certain microbes would be able to survive under such extreme conditions. Reinhard added: 'It's a reminder that even a planet like Earth won't stay habitable forever.' Why is this important While this event is far in the future, it raises important questions for scientists studying the habitability of other planets. Since oxygen is often considered a key indicator of life, understanding Earth's eventual loss of oxygen could help scientists better assess other planets' potential to support life. The findings show how complex and fragile Earth's systems are, and how they can change over time, even without human interference.
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Researchers Just Found Thousands Of New Seamounts
Global map showing gravitational variations caused by topographic changes. In purple higher features ... More like seamounts and in green lower features like rift zones. There are better maps of the Moon's surface than of the bottom of Earth's ocean. Researchers have been working for decades to change that. As part of the ongoing effort, a NASA-supported team in collaboration with researchers from the French space agency CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) recently published one of the most detailed maps yet of the ocean floor, using data from the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) mission. Launched in December 2022, the SWOT satellite measures the height of water in lakes, reservoirs and rivers. Researchers can use these differences in height to create a kind of topographic map of the surface of fresh- and seawater. This data can then be used for tasks such as assessing changes in sea ice or tracking how floods progress down a river. SWOT covers about 90 percent of the globe every 21 days, so the researchers used the additional data to map the world's oceans. Elevations like underwater mountains, having a larger mass and a stronger gravitational pull, slightly deform the sea surface above them. Previous ocean-observing satellites have detected massive versions of these bottom features, such as seamounts over roughly 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) tall. The SWOT satellite can pick up seamounts less than half that height, potentially increasing the number of known seamounts from 44,000 to 100,000. 'Abyssal hills are the most abundant landform on Earth, covering about 70 percent of the ocean floor,' explains Yao Yu, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and lead author on the paper. 'These hills are only a few kilometers wide, which makes them hard to observe from space. We were surprised that SWOT could see them so well.' The improved view from SWOT also gives researchers more insight into underwater plate boundaries, a key element in Earth's plate tectonics. The seafloor widens along rift zones, pushing the tectonic plates apart, and gets recycled into Earth's mantle along subduction zones. The orientation and extent of geological features mapped by SWOT can reveal how tectonic plates have moved over time. Rift zone in the Indian Ocean showing a parallel set of fracture zones and faults. Detailed seafloor maps have also practical applications. Accurate maps of the ocean floor are crucial for a range of seafaring activities, including navigation and laying underwater communications cables. The researchers have extracted nearly all the information on seafloor features they expected to find in the SWOT measurements. Now they're focusing on refining their picture of the ocean floor by calculating the depth of the features they see. The work complements an effort by the international scientific community to map the entire seafloor using ship-based sonar (hopefully) by 2030. The study, "Abyssal marine tectonics from the SWOT mission," was published in the journal Science. Additional material and interviews provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Earth Observatory
