Plants in space

A young sunflower plant aboard the ISS[1]
Vegetable Production System for ISS being discussed

Plants in space are plants grown in outer space typically in a weightless but pressurized controlled environment in specific space gardens.[2] In the context of human spaceflight, they can be consumed as food and/or provide a refreshing atmosphere.[3] Plants can metabolize carbon dioxide in the air to produce valuable oxygen, and can help control cabin humidity.[4] Growing plants in space may provide a psychological benefit to human spaceflight crews.[4]

The first challenge in growing plants in space is how to get plants to grow without gravity.[5] This runs into difficulties regarding the effects of gravity on root development, providing appropriate types of lighting, and other challenges. In particular, the nutrient supply to root as well as the nutrient biogeochemical cycles, and the microbiological interactions in soil-based substrates are particularly complex, but have been shown to make possible space farming in hypo- and micro-gravity.[6][7]

NASA plans to grow plants in space to help feed astronauts, and to provide psychological benefits for long-term space flight.[8]

History

Seeds

The first organisms in space were "specially developed strains of seeds" launched to 134 km (83 mi) on 9 July 1946 on a U.S. launched V-2 rocket. These samples were not recovered. The first seeds launched into space and successfully recovered were maize seeds launched on 30 July 1946. Soon followed rye and cotton. These early suborbital biological experiments were handled by Harvard University, NASA's top scientist at the time (Matthew Amoroso), and the Naval Research Laboratory and were concerned with radiation exposure on living tissue.[9] In 1971, 500 tree seeds (Loblolly pine, Sycamore, Sweetgum, Redwood, and Douglas fir) were flown around the Moon on Apollo 14. These Moon trees were planted and grown with controls back on Earth where no changes were detected.

Plants

In 1982, the crew of the Soviet Salyut 7 space station conducted an experiment, prepared by Lithuanian scientists (A. J. Merkys, PhD and others), and grew some Arabidopsis using Fiton-3 experimental micro-greenhouse apparatus, thus becoming the first plants to flower and produce seeds in space.[10][11] A Skylab experiment studied the effects of gravity and light on rice plants.[12][13] The SVET-2 Space Greenhouse successfully achieved seed to seed plant growth in 1997 aboard space station Mir.[4] Bion 5 carried Daucus carota and Bion 7 carried maize (aka corn).

Plant research continued on the International Space Station. Biomass Production System was used on the ISS Expedition 4. The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) system was later used aboard ISS.[14] Plants tested in Veggie before going into space included lettuce, Swiss chard, radishes, Chinese cabbage and peas.[15] Red Romaine lettuce was grown in space on Expedition 40 which were harvested when mature, frozen and tested back on Earth. Expedition 44 members became the first American astronauts to eat plants grown in space on 10 August 2015, when their crop of Red Romaine was harvested.[16] Since 2003 Russian cosmonauts have been eating half of their crop while the other half goes towards further research.[17] In 2012, a sunflower bloomed aboard the ISS under the care of NASA astronaut Donald Pettit.[18] In January 2016, US astronauts announced that a zinnia had blossomed aboard the ISS.[19]

Plants grown in space

Plants grown in space include:

Experiments

Illustration of plants growing in a Mars base.

Experiments for plant growing include:

Results of Experiments

Several experiments have been focused on how plant growth and distribution compares in anti-gravity, space conditions versus Earth conditions. This enables scientists to explore whether certain plant growth patterns are innate or environmentally driven. For instance, Allan H. Brown tested seedling movements aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1983. Sunflower seedling movements were recorded while in orbit. They observed that the seedlings still experienced rotational growth and circumnation despite lack of gravity, showing these behaviors are built-in[27].

Other experiments have found that plants have the ability exhibit gravitropism, even in low-gravity conditions. For instance, the ESA's European Modular Cultivation System[28] enables experimentation with plant growth; acting as a miniature greenhouse, scientists aboard the International Space Station can investigate how plants react in variable-gravity conditions.The Gravi-1 experiment (2008) utilized the EMCS to study lentil seedling growth and amyloplast movement on the calcium-dependent pathways[29]. The results of this experiment found that the plants were able to sense the direction of gravity even at very low levels[30]. A later experiment with the EMCS placed 768 lentil seedlings in a centrifuge to stimulate various gravitational changes; this experiment, Gravi-2 (2014), displayed that plants change calcium signalling towards root growth while being grown in a several gravity levels[31].

Many experiments have a more generalized approach in observing overall plant growth patterns as opposed to one specific growth behavior. One such experiment from the Canadian Space Agency, for example, found that white spruce seedlings grew differently in the anti-gravity space environment compared with Earth-bound seedlings;[32] the space seedlings exhibited enhanced growth from the shoots and needles, and also had randomized amyloplast distribution compared with the Earth-bound control group.[33]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plants in space.
  1. ↑ SS038-E-000734 (13 Nov. 2013)
  2. 1 2 NASA - Growing Plants and Vegetables in a Space Garden
  3. ↑ NASA - Plants in Space
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 T.Ivanova, et al. - First Successful Space Seed-to-Seed Plant Growth Experiment in the SVET-2 Space Greenhouse in 1997
  5. 1 2 NASA - Getting to The Root of Plant Growth Aboard The Space Station
  6. ↑ Maggi F. and C. Pallud, (2010), Martian base agriculture: The effect of low gravity on water flow, nutrient cycles, and microbial biomass dynamic, Advances in Space Research 46, 1257-1265, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2010.07.012
  7. ↑ Maggi F. and C. Pallud, (2010), Space agriculture in micro- and hypo-gravity: A comparative study of soil hydraulics and biogeochemistry in a cropping unit on Earth, Mars, the Moon and the space station, Planet. Space Sci. 58, 1996–2007, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2010.09.025.
  8. ↑ Rainey, Kristine. "Crew Members Sample Leafy Greens Grown on Space Station". NASA. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  9. ↑ Beischer, DE; Fregly, AR (1962). "Animals and man in space. A chronology and annotated bibliography through the year 1960". US Naval School of Aviation Medicine. ONR TR ACR-64 (AD0272581). Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "First species of plant to flower in space". Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "No NASA, These Are Not The First Plants To Flower In Space". Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 Plant Growth/Plant Phototropism - Skylab Student Experiment ED-61/62
  13. ↑ NASA SP-401 - Chapter 5
  14. ↑ NASA - VEGGIE
  15. ↑ NASA - Station Investigation to Test Fresh Food Experience
  16. ↑ Why Salad in Space Matters, Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 10 August 2015
  17. ↑ Bauman, Joe (16 June 2003). "USU EXPERIMENT FEEDS ASTRONAUTS' MINDS, TASTE BUDS". Deseret News, Space Dynamics Laboratory.
  18. ↑ "June 17–26 – Diary of a Space Zucchini". Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  19. ↑ Behold the first flower to bloom in space, a cheerful zinnia, Cnet, 18 January 2016
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 R. Zimmerman - Growing Pains (2003) - Air & Space/Smithsonian
  21. ↑ A Plant Growth Chamber 01.30.08
  22. ↑ "NASA - Station Investigation to Test Fresh Food Experience". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Glow-in-the-Dark Plants on the ISS
  24. ↑ Encyclopedia Astronautica Salyut 7
  25. ↑ Plant Signaling (STS-135)
  26. ↑ Shimazu T, Aizawa S. "STS-95 Space Experiments (plants and cell biology)". Biol Sci Space. 13: 25–32. PMID 11542477. doi:10.2187/bss.13.25.
  27. ↑ Chamovitz, Daniel (2012). What a plant knows : a field guide to the senses (1st ed. ed.). New York: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-28873-0.
  28. ↑ Jost, Ann-Iren Kittang; Hoson, Takayuki; Iversen, Tor-Henning (20 January 2015). "The Utilization of Plant Facilities on the International Space Station—The Composition, Growth, and Development of Plant Cell Walls under Microgravity Conditions". Plants. 4 (1): 44–62. ISSN 2223-7747. doi:10.3390/plants4010044.
  29. ↑ Driss-Ecole, Dominique; Legué, Valérie; Carnero-Diaz, Eugénie; Perbal, Gérald (1 September 2008). "Gravisensitivity and automorphogenesis of lentil seedling roots grown on board the International Space Station". Physiologia Plantarum. 134 (1): 191–201. ISSN 1399-3054. doi:10.1111/j.1399-3054.2008.01121.x.
  30. ↑ "Scientific objectives". Plants in space: GRAVI-2 experiment. 28 March 2014.
  31. ↑ "A decade of plant biology in space". European Space Agency.
  32. ↑ "NASA - Advanced Plant Experiment - Canadian Space Agency 2". www.nasa.gov.
  33. ↑ Rioux, Danny; Lagacé, Marie; Cohen, Luchino Y.; Beaulieu, Jean (1 January 2015). "Variation in stem morphology and movement of amyloplasts in white spruce grown in the weightless environment of the International Space Station". Life Sciences in Space Research. 4: 67–78. doi:10.1016/j.lssr.2015.01.004.
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