The research group of Associate Professor Naoto Sato of the Faculty of Agriculture, Meiji University has signed a joint research agreement with Digital Blast Co., Ltd.Associate Professor Naoto Sato, Associate Professor Hiroshi Too, Specially Appointed Professor Kiyoshi Ozawa of Meiji University Kurokawa Farm and Digital Blast will start joint research on elemental technologies for the development of gravity generators for plant cultivation on the moon.
Currently, as research and development for manned space exploration progresses, awareness of issues regarding food security and plant cultivation in the space environment is increasing. It has been clarified that the growth of plants is greatly affected in the micro-gravity environment such as the ISS (International Space Station), but the current situation is that there are few experimental cases in the low-gravity environment assuming the moon and Mars.
Under these circumstances, Digital Blast has started the development of a "gravity generator" that generates centrifugal force by rotating the device and cultivates plants after reproducing the gravity of 1/6 of the earth, which is the same as the surface of the moon.The research group, including Assistant Professor Sato, will cooperate in terms of the elemental technologies necessary for the development of gravity generators.
Since 2011, Associate Professor Sato and Professor Too's Land Resources Laboratory have been studying water transfer in cultivation media under low gravity environment.Professor Ozawa has been engaged in research on the practical application of environmental control technology utilizing crop reaction for many years, and is conducting research on crop cultivation in the facility of Meiji University Kurokawa Farm.In this joint research, we will apply these research results and technologies to research the elemental technologies necessary for the development of gravity generators.
