Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 30 July 2024
Your weekly round-up of astrobotany news and adventure. This week we've got, oh my gosh, so much good stuff!
Hello, Gardeners of the Galaxy! Welcome to this week's Mission Report.
GotG Friend Gioia Massa has been speaking Andrés Almeida on NASA’s ‘Small Steps, Giant Leaps’ podcast, about the science of space gardening.
Whilst talking about Veggie, Gioia mentions APEX growth chambers, which are essentially plastic boxes that are filled with substrate, with a sort of showerhead attachment in the bottom for watering the substrate. A plastic dome cover can be removed as the plants grow. They’re very good for tall, skinny plants, and are going to be used for some experiments with grasses that are coming up.
[She’s referring to C4 Photosynthesis in Space (C4 Space), AKA APEX-09, which is due to launch on the NG-21 cargo mission on 3 August, now that Falcon 9 has been cleared for flight. The Principal Investigator for APEX-09 is Pubudu Handakumbura from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She and her team will be examining the carbon dioxide capture mechanisms of two types of grasses, Brachypodium distachyon (a C3 model grass) and Setaria viridis (a C4 model grass). Results could show how photosynthesis and overall plant metabolism change in space. This knowledge could support the development of ways to use carbon-metabolizing plants in bioregenerative life-support systems on future missions. If you want to know more, Dr Handakumbura joined the ISS National Lab Prelaunch Science Webinar, and you can find her segment at 01:03:00 in the YouTube video.]
Gioia goes on to talk about the tomato experiment in Veggie that didn’t perform according to expectations.
“First we didn’t have enough water, so things dried out, and we got poor germination. So, we had to kind of adapt and do a bit of a “Hail Mary” pass and try to add a lot of extra water to recover those, then we ended up with too much water later on in the experiment. And we were getting, you know, some microbial growth, but we also got these, like, fascinating aerial roots that grew on the tomatoes. Tomatoes always have a few aerial roots. But these were just massive….
Unfortunately, a lot of the tomatoes didn’t stay on the plants, they boarded prematurely, or they fell off (senesced). And so, we didn’t have enough tomatoes for the crew to eat, which I think was disappointing for them. It was definitely disappointing for us, but we got all the samples back and, and instead of, you know, getting the taste test data, which we’d hope to get, we were able to get some different types of biological data from the samples.”
Gioia also talks about the data that has been collected about how gardening affects the health and wellbeing of astronauts, which is still being analysed.
“They love the smell of the plants, which is something that I found really interesting, we get all these photos back of like astronauts that are like, you know, sniffing plant leaves, and they said that, you know, when they open the bellows of the Veggie or the door of the Advanced Plant Habitat, it’s almost like being in the produce section of a grocery store and it’s just an aroma that they’ve really missed on the space station.”
Listen now: Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Episode 133: The Science of Space Gardening (there is a transcript on the site).
Happy 4th birthday, Gardeners of the Galaxy! Have you heard the latest show yet?
In this episode:
01:41 Space plums!
06:24 Moon tulips!
Listen now: Space Fruit and Flowers (GotG60)
In other news...
Astrobotanist Rob Ferl will be onboard Blue Origin’s NS-26 mission (launch date tbc). He’ll become the first NASA-funded researcher to conduct an experiment as part of a commercial suborbital space crew, activating a series of Kennedy Space Center Fixation Tubes (KFTs) to capture the gene activity of Arabidopsis thaliana plants at various points during the flight. His co-investigator, GotG friend Anna-Lisa Paul, will be activating identical control KFTs at the same times.
“The flight test aims to evaluate the effectiveness of using KFTs to capture biological responses during the transitions from Earth’s gravity, through increasing g loads, to the microgravity environment enabled by Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket system. The gene expression data collected is anticipated to characterize the early phases of the rapid adaptation that accompanies transitions among g loads.”
NASA’s flight summary page includes links to the team’s previous suborbital experiments on Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.
Read more: Flight Testing Gene Expression Technology
NASA has awarded a prestigious Group Silver Achievement Award to the team behind a project known as Biological Experiment-01, which includes Michigan State University researchers led by Federica Brandizzi. Brandizzi’s team sent Arabidopsis seeds to the Moon on Artemis I. The team has been analyzing some of those samples to gain insights into how seeds can be protected against the effects of flying through the radiation belt that surrounds the Earth. Other seeds have been frozen, so that researchers can thaw them later to investigate follow-up questions or new lines of inquiry without needing to send more samples into space.
Read more: MSU’s ‘seeds in space’ collaboration wins NASA award
On LinkedIn, GotG friend Marshall Porterfield has been talking about his mycoponics project – hydroponics for fungi. (He also mentioned it during our chat in episode 57). The project uses liquid culture media made from waste from traditional mushroom production to create high-value gourmet and medicinal mushrooms in urban warehouses. It also includes production of radioresistant mycoclothing, including mycoleather gloves grown in space from waste streams!
Since the 1990s, Guangchang has been conducting space breeding research for the white lotus. By sending white lotus seeds into space, and then cultivating them upon their return to Earth, the county has developed space-bred white lotus varieties known for their high yield, superior quality, and extended flowering period. One standout variety from this research is the No. 36 space-bred lotus variety, which possesses a long growth period, abundant flowers, large and plump seedpods, high fruiting rate, and excellent quality. It has become one of the main cultivated varieties in China's lotus production areas.
The county produces 9,000 tonnes of white lotus seeds each year, creating an output value of more than 800 million yuan (around $110 million), and has been developing tourism cantered around lotus flowers.
Read more: Guangchang county in E China's Jiangxi cultivates big lotus industry
Preparations are underway for Plant Ultraviolet-B. Plant UV-B is a Japanese experiment will examine the effects of stress from microgravity and high UV radiation exposure and the combination of the two on two varieties of Arabidopsis - wild-type and a mutant lacking autophagy function.
The Guardian has an article on the Aqualunar Challenge, the UK Space Agency’s project to develop water-purifying technologies for the Moon (for growing crops, among other things). It talks about Naicker Scientific Ltd, and the company’s plan to clean dirty lunar ice by using powerful sound waves to generate millions of tiny bubbles.
Read now: Inventors on hunt for way to make clean water on moon
Chinese researchers have announced the discovery of a mineral enriched with water molecules and ammonium in lunar samples retrieved by Chang'e-5 mission. Christened ULM-1, water molecules in the unidentified mineral crystal account for as much as 41% of the sample's mass. There is also a small amount of potassium, suggesting great potential for humans to grow crops on the moon in the future.
Since the announcement, Chinese netizens have been discussing which plants they would grow on the Moon. Those from the southern parts of China, known for their "hot and spicy" dishes, called for planting "space-borne chili peppers," while others from the north asked if potatoes and green beans can be considered.
However, how to extract liquid water from the crystals is one of the questions to be answered before the crop plan can be finalized!
Read more: Chinese eagerly discuss ‘planting veggies’ on lunar surface following ground-breaking discovery
Market research company YouGov recently asked their audience a quick question - whether humanity is likely to establish colonies on the Moon or Mars in the next century. As you can see – we’ve still got some convincing to do! If you’d like to get paid for your opinion, pick your country and sign up here.
Parastronaut John McFall has been cleared for spaceflight after ESA’s 2-year feasibility study determined that his physical disability would not prevent him from fulfilling all of the requirements for an astronaut, including being able to carry out emergency procedures and experiments, fitting into space suits and maintaining good health in orbit. As the tests have shown that he will need to wear a prosthesis in space, ongoing work is needed to ensure it will fit properly in microgravity. Although John has not been guaranteed a flight opportunity, he is likely to be part of the crew for the planned commercial all-British spaceflight (assuming it does take place). Those plans took a step in the right direction this week with the announcement that Tim Peake has joined the Axiom astronaut corps as strategic advisor.
Read more: Disabled British astronaut John McFall cleared to travel into space
Thank you for reading the Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report — your support allows me to keep doing this work. I'll be back in your inboxes next week. Thanks for reading and being part of the Gardeners of the Galaxy community.
Ex solo ad astra,
Emma (Space Gardener)