NASA, USDA expand partnership on space-based assets benefitting life on Earth

As part of the agreement, NASA will provide space-based Earth observations to the USDA to help inform and improve agricultural production on Earth.

NASA on Thursday announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), strengthening their longstanding partnership on space-based assets benefitting life on Earth.

By combining NASA's experience with technology development and space-borne Earth science measurements and USDA's scientific experience and knowledge of agricultural production, resource conservation, food security and safety, and forests and working lands, the two agencies will explore research gaps of importance to the agricultural community that could be addressed through innovative Earth observation systems and technologies developed over the next decade.

Commenting on the collaboration, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, said, "This partnership between USDA and NASA will bring together the best research, science, and technology we have to offer to help produce more food to feed the growing world. We are continuing an already great collaborative effort to utilize space-based technologies across sectors and into agriculture."

The agreement will address recommendations made in the 2017 National Academies' Earth Science Decadal Survey and also leverage USDA's connections with the agricultural community and the global marketplace.

NASA says the partnership outlined in the agreement will benefit a variety of Earth and space-based goals including activities in support of the Artemis program that aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024 and establish sustainable exploration with the agency's commercial and international partners by the end of the decade.

Further, plant-related research on the International Space Station (ISS) and other space or ground platforms may lead to creative new ways to improve American and global agriculture, protect the environment and contribute to better human health, the US space agency said.