Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has received a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create the world’s first makerspace in a botanic garden. The grant of nearly $750,000 supports Fairchild’s Growing Beyond Earth Innovation Studio, a new community workspace dedicated to the technology of growing food.
“With help from NASA, Fairchild will be equipped for anyone to help develop new food growing technologies,” said Carl Lewis, Fairchild’s director. “We are thrilled that our community can help find better ways to grow edible plants on Earth and in space.”
Fairchild will focus on specific challenges that are related to NASA’s food production initiatives, including growing plants in small containers with the limited resources available on spacecraft, and using automation to plant, harvest, and maintain crops with little or no intervention from astronauts.
The planned makerspace is a new concept for botanic gardens and for NASA, and will be unique within the maker community. It will be the first public facility dedicated to NASA’s food production challenges and the first project to leverage community input in the development of plant-growing hardware.
To create the new makerspace, Fairchild has selected two existing centrally located buildings for renovation. The grant will help equip the facility with fabrication equipment including 3D printers and laser cutters, allowing users to turn ideas into reality.
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