Every item that is taken into space weighs something and takes up space (food, water, soil). Though the years, NASA has learned how to grow plants successfully without using soil, in a mist of water and nutrients. They also had to find out which plants would successfully grow in a weightless environment. At the KSC, they have plant growth chambers to test different wavelengths of light. White light with blue in it can help plants grow normally, i.e., stems "up" to light and roots "down."
I kind of agree that this is old territory. I understand the idea of using new technology and using it to engage students and classrooms or to document the process better, but at the same time this feels like the same old science fair experiments I see every year: how light conditions affect plant growth, or how plant growth is affected by music. I think we need to try to turn-over new ground or hear reasoning why this is a solid or necessary experiment.
Haven't experiments like this been done for decades. They need to be moving on to the next stage of growing enough food to feed or at least substantially supplementing the crews diet with food grown in space.
of course no ozone layer thats why they grow so fast and was there air in those containers or carbon dioxide?
davids2kk 4 months ago
Every item that is taken into space weighs something and takes up space (food, water, soil). Though the years, NASA has learned how to grow plants successfully without using soil, in a mist of water and nutrients. They also had to find out which plants would successfully grow in a weightless environment. At the KSC, they have plant growth chambers to test different wavelengths of light. White light with blue in it can help plants grow normally, i.e., stems "up" to light and roots "down."
MoogleMe 4 months ago
Space weed
shazta88 4 months ago
Plants in space grow to Bolero...
Somebody over there is hilarious :)
MedicalStorage 5 months ago
NICE FRESH OXYGEN : )
davids2kk 5 months ago
They should try to farm their own food in space and experiment with how their produce differs and how their bodies react to them eating space crops!
TFstudiosOnline 5 months ago
I would be interested in buying some weed if you grew it in space. Cosmic weed man, would be far out.
cyaninternetdog 5 months ago
I kind of agree that this is old territory. I understand the idea of using new technology and using it to engage students and classrooms or to document the process better, but at the same time this feels like the same old science fair experiments I see every year: how light conditions affect plant growth, or how plant growth is affected by music. I think we need to try to turn-over new ground or hear reasoning why this is a solid or necessary experiment.
mrericsully 5 months ago
in the ISS plants screen right ,up,down,left,back or front is the location of earth?
goatfunkra 5 months ago
So, what's different/new from the Skylab & Mir experiments?
Z1BABOUINOS 5 months ago 8
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Z1BABOUINOS 5 months ago
So, plants grow a little FASTER in space? If so, that's a very useful thing to know...
MartianStories 5 months ago
when i read the description, i thought Nasa had discovered alien plant life or somethin.... 'Face palm' stupid idiot.
willpheonix 5 months ago
Haven't experiments like this been done for decades. They need to be moving on to the next stage of growing enough food to feed or at least substantially supplementing the crews diet with food grown in space.
audience2 5 months ago 7