Australian-developed plant monitoring technology will be flown to space in this University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) led, iLAuNCH Trailblazer project, demonstrating a key technology capability for sustainable plant-based food production in space and on Earth.

Just as agriculture is essential for life on Earth, space crops are anticipated to be an important food source in long-term space missions, and will also have significant commercial applications here on Earth.

“Our second collaboration with Axiom Space will focus on advancing a novel plant stress monitoring technique developed by the University of Southern Queensland by testing it in space,” said iLAuNCH Trailblazer Executive Director, Darin Lovett.

“The iLAuNCH Trailblazer mission will provide launch capability for machine vision of plant growth, building on UniSQ’s expertise in terrestrial agriculture. In collaboration with Axiom Space, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, and space laboratory company Yuri Gravity, the project will deploy a flight-ready plant growth chamber to advance machine vision technology for monitoring plant development in microgravity. Additionally, the partnership with Australian company Medicinal Harvest will explore the commercial applications of this technology for terrestrial agriculture, further expanding its potential impact.”

“UniSQ’s Centre for Agricultural Engineering, with over 30 years of expertise in terrestrial agriculture, recognises the critical importance of autonomous plant growth monitoring for future sustainable food production systems. Controlled Environment Agriculture technologies are pivotal to addressing food security challenges posed by limited land availability and a growing global population,” said UniSQ Associate Professor Cheryl McCarthy.

This project follows UniSQ’s successful Australian Space Agency-funded research (2021–2022) which pioneered novel plant monitoring algorithms using machine vision, and have been further refined through an autonomous agriculture consortium, Autonomous Agriculture for Space Exploration, led by UK company Vertical Future with funding from the UK and Australian Space Agencies (2024-2025).

Key Project Highlights:

Machine Vision in Space: UniSQ will demonstrate machine vision algorithms for early detection of plant health, on a unique image dataset of plants growing in the space environment.

Plant Growth Systems: The University of Adelaide brings expertise in plant stress tolerance biology.

Hardware Innovation: Yuri Gravity will supply a flight-certified plant growth chamber with imaging capabilities for both spaceflight and ground testing.

Earth Applications: In collaboration with Australian agricultural business Medicinal Harvest, UniSQ will assess the technology’s commercial benefits for terrestrial Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).

Machine vision technology offers enormous potential for plant health monitoring, providing a scalable, automated solution for both space-based food production and terrestrial farming systems.

The project’s objectives include:

• Integrating machine vision with a space-ready plant chamber.
• Capturing images to monitor plant biology and growth in microgravity.
• Demonstrating early detection of plant health issues using machine vision.
• Evaluating the technology’s scalability for commercial CEA applications on Earth.

“Collaborating with iLAuNCH and UniSQ, alongside esteemed industry partners, provides an incredible opportunity to trial predictive AI in our medicinal cannabis facility. The insights gained from this facility have broad applications across controlled environment agriculture, as the core principle remains the same. At the end of the day, we are cultivating plants, and optimising their growth is key to the future of agriculture, both in space and on Earth,” said Medicinal Harvest Director, Tracey Perez.

This iLAuNCH project will deliver plant growth in microgravity using machine vision, positioning Australia at the forefront of space agriculture technology.

“Axiom Space is delighted to partner on this effort to advance global efforts toward agriculture in space that translate into benefits for every human, everywhere,” said Axiom Space Chief Scientist, Dr Lucie Low.

This initiative underscores iLAuNCH Trailblazer’s mission to connect industry and academia, pushing the boundaries of space innovation while delivering tangible solutions for Earth-based challenges.

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About iLAuNCH

The Innovative Launch, Automation, Novel Materials, Communications and Hypersonics (iLAuNCH) Trailblazer is an Australian Government Department of Education Program led by the University of Southern Queensland in partnership with the Australian National University and the University of South Australia.

This program is building Australia’s enduring space capability through the commercialisation of projects, a fast-track accelerator, and skills development to build the workforce of the future.

About the University of Southern Queensland’s Centre for Agricultural Engineering (CAE)

The Centre for Agricultural Engineering delivers applied, practical and profitable research solutions that strengthen agricultural productivity and address environmental management challenges in Australia and overseas.

The Centre is an internationally recognised leader in research focused on improving the profitability, environmental sustainability and socio-economic wellbeing of rural industries and their natural resource bases, as well as the manufacturing and service sectors that support them including irrigation and water resources management; farming systems innovation; energy efficiency and renewable energy; bioresource recycling; robotics, automation and machine vision.

About The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S) at the University of Adelaide

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S) is developing technologies to enable humans to survive and thrive in space, reducing the dependence on constant resupply, and using this lens to transform the sustainability of food and bioresource production on Earth.

P4S is a transdisciplinary endeavour involving multiple skillsets from systems and process engineering, plant biology, food chemistry, psychology, education and space law. The international and national consortium has representation across a wide range of industries including space, controlled environment agriculture, and food manufacturing. With a standing load of 200 Australian based researchers by 2026, the majority of which are based at the foundational universities of the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and the University of Western Australia, work in collaboration with a network of international and national partners including Axiom Space, Yuri and NASA; www.plants4space.com.

About Axiom Space

Axiom Space is building the world’s first commercial space station – Axiom Station. Serving as a cornerstone for sustained human presence in space, this next-generation orbital platform fosters groundbreaking innovation and research in microgravity, and cultivates the vibrant, global space economy of tomorrow. Today, driven by the vision of leading humanity’s journey off planet, Axiom Space is the principal provider of commercial human spaceflight services to the International Space Station and developer of advanced spacesuits for the Moon and low-Earth orbit. Axiom Space is building era-defining space infrastructure that will empower our civilization to transcend Earth for the benefit of every human, everywhere. For more information about Axiom Space, visit www.axiomspace.com.

About Medicinal Harvest

Medicinal Harvest produces premium medicinal cannabis flower bud at its high-tech, indoor cultivation facility in South-East Queensland. The facility has full climate control, with computerised irrigation and nutrient delivery for the hydroponic growing system. Medicinal Harvest’s mission is to responsibly produce medicinal cannabis flower bud with care and provenance. The year-round consistency of the company’s flower bud is highly valued by the supply chain. Medicinal Harvest is proudly Australian owned and operated, with a federal licence from the Office of Drug Control (ODC). For more information about Medicinal Harvest, visit www.medicinalharvest.com.