Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 21 January 2025
Your weekly round-up of astrobotany news and adventure. This week we've got sci-fi Dyson trees, another aquatic ecosystem headed for space and some blasts from our astrobotany past!
Hello, Gardeners of the Galaxy! Welcome to this week's Mission Report.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Ryan and I are beavering away behind the scenes to move my astrobotany content away from my personal website to a new home of its own. I made good progress over the weekend, including designing this logo for the new site. All being well, the new site should launch early in February, if not before.
Rob Beschizza on Boing Boing has written a fascinating piece about Dyson Trees, a hypothetical concept dreamed up by physicist Freeman Dyson. The basic idea is a genetically engineered plant that could grow inside a comet, producing a breathable atmosphere for themselves, mining the comet for nutrients and using solar energy for photosynthesis. They would, therefore, produce a self-sustaining habitat, much like a greenhouse in space, which humans could live in.
The concept has been explored in science fiction, of course, but I’m intrigued by the tie-ins with recent news items. Further down this newsletter, you’ll find a story about scientists exploring whether rocks on the deep ocean floor are producing oxygen, and if so – how? Their results could have profound implications for life in the universe. And two weeks ago, I included a piece on two astrobiologists who think that life could thrive without a home planet.
Read more: Dyson Trees could make a home for humans—and other things
In other news...
And take another trip down memory lane to when the EDEN ISS container was parked in Antarctica, with a blog from a photographer who found it fascinating.
Look now: April to August in Pictures – EDEN ISS Container
In partnership with DreamUp, three student teams have been selected to send experiments to the International Space Station. Their chosen topics involve how microgravity affects Phyllostachys edulis(bamboo) seeds and the mycelium of Pleurotus eryngii (king trumpet mushrooms), and whether Armadillidium vulgare (pill bugs) increase the pH of soil in microgravity. The experiments are targeting a launch on CRS-32 in April 2025.
Read more: SCVi, iLEAD Selected to Send Student Experiments to Space
The Aviation Museum near Bulgaria's second biggest city, Plovdiv, is home to some fascinating historical artefacts. One of them is a Bulgarian space greenhouse (“SVET”) used “during the second Bulgarian space flight by our cosmonaut Alexander Alexandrov and his colleagues" – this article shows a picture of the display. (Aleksandar Aleksandrov, spent ten days on the Mir Space Station in 1988.)
White apricot seeds from Turpan City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region were included in the payload of the Shijian-19 satellite last year. According to Professor Yang Qing from Beijing Forestry University, researchers hope to identify germplasm resources with superior taste, high sugar content, abundant moisture, and a longer shelf life through space breeding.
Read more: Turpan White Apricot Seeds from Xinjiang Successfully Undergo Space Breeding and Turpan’s white apricot seeds sent to space for breeding via satellite.
China will be sending a larger aquarium to Tiangong this year, containing six zebrafish and six grams of Ceratophyllum. The news reports on the previous aquatic ecosystem tend to focus on the fish, but this report says that “The Ceratophyllum maintained robust photosynthetic activity throughout its stay in orbit.”
Read more: China Focus: More zebrafish to swim in China's space station
And thanks to GotG friend Stefanie Schur for giving me a heads up about this new technical competition called "Mars Against Hunger". The Mars Technology Institute (MTI) is running a global competition to demonstrate radically more efficient methods of food production needed to support the human settlement of the Red Planet; the technologies it aims to develop could go a long way towards ending the age-old scourge of hunger on Earth.
Read more: Be Part of It! MTI’s Mars Against Hunger Competition!
Western culture has long painted eating bugs as backward and gross. But learned disgust can be overcome — if the conditions are right.
Read more: Fiction to reality: Will the US ever embrace insect cuisine?
Scientists who recently discovered that metal lumps on the dark seabed make oxygen, have announced plans to study the deepest parts of Earth's oceans in order to understand the strange phenomenon. If oxygen - a vital component of life - is made in the dark by metal lumps, the researchers believe that process could be happening on other planets, creating oxygen-rich environments where life could thrive.
Read more: 'Dark oxygen' mission takes aim at other worlds
Scientists onboard the Chinese space station, Tiangong, have successfully turned carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into life-sustaining materials. The process relies on a semiconductor catalyst, which absorbs sunlight and helps break down CO2 and water. In space, this technology captures the CO2 exhaled by astronauts and converts it into oxygen, making the air breathable. By changing the catalyst, the system can produce other products from CO2, such as methane (for fuel) or formic acid (for synthesising sugars). This could be crucial for sustaining astronauts with food and fuel on long missions.
Read more: China turns CO2 into oxygen on space station
A doorbell camera on a Canadian home has captured rare video and sound of a meteorite striking Earth as it crashed into a couple’s walkway.
Read more: Meteorite strike captured in rare video from Canadian home’s doorbell camera
A company behind a rocket engine which exploded during a test at the UK's new spaceport in Shetland could still be the first in Europe to carry out vertical launches into orbit.
Read more: UK first as vertical rocket launch licence granted
Researchers have successfully inserted the decay fungus Desarmillaria tabescens – a white rot fungus – into balsa wood to make it glow, with the aim of producing functionality. While bioluminescence – colloquially known as 'fox fire' – is a familiar sight in decaying wood in nature, especially in the mycelial strands that resemble bootlaces, it is the first time the process has been 'tamed' in a laboratory.
Although it is in its very early stages, the scientists involved believe it could one day be used as an alternative light source, such as a battery-free glow to light homes and communities, medical imaging and optical sensing to dyes and paints and a bioluminescent-based bioassay for detecting wood preservatives.
Read more: Lightbulb moment for fungi scientists
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)