. 24/7 Space News .
SPACE TRAVEL
Growing Plants in Antarctica 'Open Way' for Distant Space Missions - Analyst
by Staff Writers
Pullman WA (SPX) Apr 12, 2018

illustration only

Antarctica has yielded its first vegetable crops, grown without soil or daylight. Scientists grew the greens at the Neumayer-Station III inside a high-tech greenhouse. The project aims to help cultivate fresh food on other planets.

Sputnik discussed the significance of the scientists' success with Norman G. Lewis, regents' professor at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University.

Sputnik: In your view, how significant is it that scientists have harvested crops in such conditions?

Norman G. Lewis: To me the most significant or exciting part the news release, at least for people on Earth, is that this environmentally controlled plant growth facility is called Eden ISS or International Space Station. It's operational and functional, growing plants and vegetables, such as radishes and greens.

It's also an exciting project which is a large international collaboration drawn from scientists worldwide. In terms of significance it demonstrates that even in such harsh conditions on our Earth, with cold temperature and harsh wind conditions, scientists and engineers have some ways to successfully grow and harvest edible plants.

Sputnik: It's obviously highly significant in terms of what can be done to maintain foodstuffs for astronauts whilst they're living in space conditions, what can you add to that?

Norman G. Lewis: First this, what we'll just call a controlled environment, this controlled environment helps protect the plants when they're being grown from the conditions outside, let's say in outer space. And of course they're able to control the temperature, lighting levels, artificial light is used.

They use things called LEDs, which are called light-emitting diodes and food that's hydroponics they can provide water and nutrient delivery to the growing plants. So all these systems would have to be done on a space station during the colonization of the Moon or Mars etc.

We already know the joy the astronauts and cosmonauts can have attending to and seeing green plants growing in the outer space shuttle. For me it will be wonderful when we have astronauts and cosmonauts fully self-sufficient for fresh food, but this is still a little bit a long way off.

Can I tell you a little funny story about an experiment that was on MIR many years ago? One of our Russian colleagues, who unfortunately has passed away now, and his wife wanted to see how an onion plant grew up in space and this was before we had wonderful telecommunications, videos coming down live etc.

They did it from the mission control center in Moscow and they got audio reports on how the onion plant was growing. So every week or every day they would get a report from the cosmonaut that was up there "yes, it's growing, yes, it's doing this, yes, everything's going on."

Then, after a while, he didn't want to talk about it very much and they said "How's it going?" and he said "It's going very nicely. Everything is fine. Can we talk about something else?" And he kept giving them less and less information and they said "Look we must know how the onions are doing" and he said "I'm sorry I've eaten them."

Sputnik: This May you will be involved in a large plant study on the ISS. Perhaps you can just briefly tell us a bit more about that one?

Norman G. Lewis: We'll use equipment, it's called the Advanced Plant Habitat, and this is the first time it'll be used in space. We began testing it on the ISS to grow a plant called Arabidopsis, which is a sort of a model plant species that scientists study extensively.

So we made sure that the facility is able to grow and support plant systems up in space. Our experiment is named Arabidopsis GRO and of course meaning that we need the plant to grow and develop.

So what we're doing is we're putting the whole series of plants up onto the space station, Arabidopsis, and we'll comprehensively study how this affects their genes, their proteins and their metabolites and how this compares and contrasts with Earth.

For some of these plants we reduced what we call the lignin contents which is a reason, it's a sort of bone like material that plants have got, that allow plants to stand up right and reach out towards sunlight.

So we want to see how, if we reduce this lignin content as well, whether we can actually make plants that are going to be more nutritious, but also to get this what we call foundational studies. We'll grow the plant species out with what we call two grow-outs, we'll recover the plants on Earth and we'll find out comprehensively how the microgravity environment changes the way in which plants perceive and respond to that environment.


Related Links
Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News


Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly


paypal only
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal


SPACE TRAVEL
Rooting for Answers: Simulating G-Force to Test Plant Gravity Perception in Mustard Seedlings
Houston TX (SPX) Mar 23, 2018
When plants on Earth search for nutrients and water, what drives their direction? Very simply, gravitational force helps them find the easiest path to the substances they need to grow and thrive. What happens if gravity is no longer part of the equation? Botanists from Ohio Weslyan University leverage the microgravity environment of the International Space Station to study root growth behaviors and sensory systems in an investigation known as Gravity Perception Systems (Plant Gravity Perception). ... read more

Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.



Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

SPACE TRAVEL
'Ideas' conference to grapple with dark side of tech

Virgin Galactic completes first rocket-powered Unity space craft launch

Cargo-packed Dragon arrives at space station

SpaceX Dragon arrives at ISS with material samples and new testing facility

SPACE TRAVEL
Deep Space Industries to provide Comet satellite propulsion for BlackSky, LeoStella

Ariane 5 launches two satellites

Rocket Lab 'Its Business Time' launch window to open 20 April 2018 NZT

Student Launch Teams Rendezvous in Huntsville for NASA Competition

SPACE TRAVEL
ExoMars poised to start science mission

UAH gets NASA early-stage funding for "Marsbees" concept

MIPT physicists design a model of Martian winter

NASA's Idea to Send Swarm of Robots to Mars

SPACE TRAVEL
China's 'space dream': A Long March to the moon

China says Earth-bound space lab to offer 'splendid' show

Tiangong-1 expected to burn up on reentering atmosphere

Earth-bound Chinese spacelab plunging to fiery end

SPACE TRAVEL
Storm hunter launched to International Space Station

SpaceX says Iridium satellite payload deployed

Spacecom selects SSL to build AMOS-8 comsat with advanced capabilities

Relativity Space raises 35M in Series B funding

SPACE TRAVEL
Thin engineered material perfectly redirects and reflects sound

Programming: a highly sought talent in Silicon Valley

Swansea scientists discover greener way of making plastics

A UC3M study analyzes the keys to fragmentation of metallic materials

SPACE TRAVEL
Newly discovered salty subglacial lakes could help search for life in solar system

First Interdisciplinary Conference on Habitability in early solar system

Outback Radio Telescope Listens In on Interstellar Visitor

Artificial intelligence helps to predict likelihood of life on other worlds

SPACE TRAVEL
SSL to provide of critical capabilities for Europa Flyby Mission

Jupiter's turmoil more than skin deep: researchers

New Horizons Chooses Nickname for 'Ultimate' Flyby Target

Jupiter's Great Red Spot getting taller as it shrinks









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.