Growing Plants in Space

Brae Bigelow

Junior Division

Historical Paper

2053 Words

“I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist.

We will reach out to the stars.” - Stephen Hawking.

Intro

From early missions of humans wanting to explore space for eventual life on other planets, to a better understanding of the history of our universe, one thing is clear, our need to explore growing plants in space should be a necessary component of any space program. Our curiosity is the reason why we explore space. We want to find out our purpose in the universe, and get the answers to the questions we’ve asked. Through space exploration we can advance our technology and create new inventions and industries. Though, in order to be able to continue searching space, we would need a sustainable source of food to live off of. Something that would be full of nutrients, lightweight, and healthy for our astronauts to eat. Currently our astronauts still live off of freeze-dried packages, which are relatively healthy, but costs a lot to get it up to the International Space Station according to NASA. It currently costs around $10,000 to transport one pound to space. The food that is being sent up to space currently weighs around 2-3 pounds per package. With growing food in space nothing would need to be sent up into space thus, lowering the cost for NASA.

The issue of fresh food in space has been in place since 1946. To see if humans could grow it was the start of the mission which grew into properly feeding our astronauts that are living for long periods of time off of the Earth’s surface. In 2002, NASA started the first greenhouse system on the International Space Station. Mizuna was the first plant they grew, and

1 after the success of fully growing the plant, they continued to grow plants and develop advanced greenhouse systems to continue growing plants.

Breaking the Barrier of Growing Plants in Space

It started back in 1946, where the first seeds, (maize seeds), were launched into space on a V-2 rocket. When the seeds were sent out into space they didn’t grow and came straight back down to Earth, but it marked the beginning of growing plants in space (Rasmussen 2019).

Then in 1973, Skylab, a modified Saturn V rocket, was the first space station sent out by the US, and was sent out into orbit carrying rice seeds. This is a description of the chamber from the NASA experiment archives, “The growth container for this experiment consisted of eight compartments arranged in two parallel rows of four. The growth container was similar to cardboard potting cartridges found at plant nurseries. Each compartment had two windowed surfaces, which allowed periodic photography of the developing seedlings from both a front and side view. The study of light intensities on plants was accomplished by using light filters. For this purpose, five windows were covered with special filters with different degrees of light transmittance, two windows were blocked to prevent any light from reaching the seeds, and the remaining window had no filter, allowing 100 percent transmission of light. Three rice seeds were inserted into each compartment through covered holes. Twenty-four seeds were inserted into a nutrient agar medium with the aid of an automatic seed planter. Photographs were taken at regular intervals for 30 days” (Plant Growth/Plant Phototropism 2018). It carried advanced technology for growing these plants such as light filters, nutrient agar, which is a medium supporting growth of a wide range of non-fastidious organisms, which are organisms that can grow without any special nutrients, and an automatic seed planter (Rasmussen 2019).

2 In 1982, the Soviet Union launched Salyut 7 into space. Salyut 7 had a micro greenhouse called the Fiton 3 which grew a flower called Thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). Thale cress is a quick growing flower and it is commonly used for experiments involving growing plants in space. It showed no surprise for the flower to blossom and produce seeds in Fiton 3. Not a lot of information about Fiton 3, but an excerpt from Humans in Spaceflight gives a small description of the Fiton 3, “Fiton-3 had transparent walls and contained growth vessels filled with an agar-nutrient medium, a unit for sowing seeds in microgravity, a ventilation system that maintained sterile conditions inside the container, and a daylight-type fluorescent light” (Humans in Spaceflight 1984). It was also stated that there was a centrifuge aboard the Salyut 7, and lettuce was examined under 0.01, 0.1, and 1g conditions.

A plant habitat (SVET) was installed in 1990 aboard the Mir, a space station currently owned by Russia. SVET grew plants such as dwarf wheat and field mustard. The habitat consisted of four basic units, the plant growth chamber, the root module, the light and control unit, and GEMS (Gas Exchange Measurement System).

In 2002 on the ISS a greenhouse system was built, and it was called Lada after the Slavic

Goddess of Fertility. It is the oldest greenhouse system on the ISS, and it was modeled after

SVET on Mir. “Lada consists of four major components (a control module, two vegetation modules and a water tank) and is designed to be deployed on a cabin wall. This deployment scheme was chosen to provide the crew therapeutic viewing and easy access to the plants. The two independently controlled vegetation modules allow comparisons between two vegetation or substrate treatments. The vegetation modules consist of three sub-modules, a light bank, the leaf

3 chamber, and a root module” (Lada 2018). This was the start of growing plants in space aboard the ISS.

VEGGIE was installed on the ISS in 2014, but it was developed by ORBITEC, an Orbital

Technologies Company founded in 1988. Currently there are two VEGGIE modules on the ISS.

Plants on VEGGIE are grown with root mats and plant “pillows”. Plant “Pillows” are small, wicked pillows that contain calcined clay and fertilizer for the plants to grow in. Calcined clay is porous and lightweight, and tends to absorb water which is perfect for plants to grow in. They use red and blue LED lights because they have the highest energy wavelength. Air flow and pressure are also controlled in each of the VEGGIE systems. “Wearing sunglasses, Swanson activated the red, blue and green LED lights inside Veggie on May 8. A root mat and six plant

“pillows,” each containing ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce seeds, were inserted into the chamber. The pillows received about 100 milliliters of water each to initiate plant growth. The clear, pleated bellows surrounding Veggie were expanded and attached to the top of the unit”

(NASA 2015).

Why We Explore Space

Our reason to explore space is not simply put into one sentence. We have our logical reasons to explore space, these reasons can easily be backed up with evidence. President Bush once said, “We explore space for the purposes of scientific discovery, economic benefit, and national security.” These reasons to explore space can easily be understood, we’ve all heard them before.

Though Michael Griffin, an American Physicist and Aerospace Engineer who previously served as an Administrator for NASA, put space exploration in a different perspective. He said,

4 “I think of them as ‘acceptable reasons’ because they can be logically defended. When we contemplate committing large sums of money to a project, we tend to dismiss reasons that are emotional or value-driven or can’t be captured on a spreadsheet. But in space exploration those are the reasons—what I think of as ‘real reasons’—that are the most important” (Griffin 2007). I think this is an accurate way on how we view not only space exploration, but also in life.

We want to explore space because of how our brain is wired. Curiosity is a major variable with these “real reasons”, based on the fact of the huge universe that is out there, and what could be hiding within the nooks and crannies of our universe. Another reason is because we want to be the first or best at the things we do. The feeling of being the first person to do something, for example Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. He knew the dangers of going to the moon, and to be the first man ever was a pretty big risk, he explained it was an emotional moment when he landed on the moon, and the view of looking at his home planet from 238,900 miles away.

Though, the most interesting was the feeling of leaving something behind, for instance, people have built monuments to show what they have accomplished at that time for future generations to recognize and see. It could be a physical object, such as The Statue of Liberty, or information, such as why the Statue of Liberty was built. Knowing that you are giving something that will show importance to others is a substantial reason why we explore space.

Why Growing Food is Vital

Being able to grow food in space would be a huge legacy left by space exploration.

Currently, the astronauts in the ISS eat freeze-dried packages that are delivered to them. Four pounds of food gets delivered to the ISS every eight days, and that is not including the pound of

5 equipment that is also shipped up to them. It costs $10,000 dollars to lift a single pound up into space, that's around $460,000 dollars year just shipping up food and equipment to them. The process of growing plants in space becomes perfected, it will reduce the cost it takes to feed the astronauts according to NASA.

Growing food will also help with psychological reasons, as shown in studies gardening can help calm the mind and encourages relaxation (Soga 2016). It will also give the astronauts a bit of home to carry and take care of on their expeditions. Because there are not a lot of living things besides you and the people around you, so it will give a sense of belonging or joy.

In space, we make a lot of new scientific discoveries that help us in space and on Earth.

Growing these plants in space will help us further progress our skills in gardening and growing food on other planets. We will be prepared if we do move to another planet and understand how plants react to gravity. For example, when researchers started actually growing plants in space, they did not take into consideration how gravity would affect how the plants grew and watering the plants. These pillows are bags of dirt, fertilizer, and nutrients with a wicking material that soaks up water. Astronauts glue seeds onto the wicking material directionally, so that their roots will grow toward the bottom of the bag and the stems will grow outward.

On the ISS there is not a lot of room to hold the freeze-dried packages that they eat.

Advancing our knowledge on how to grow plants in space will reduce the amount of space taken up on the ISS and other space stations. This will give more room for equipment and necessities on the spacecraft.

Outro

6 The issue of fresh food in space has been in place since 1946. To see if humans could grow it was the start of the mission which grew into properly feeding our astronauts that are living for long periods of time off of the Earth’s surface. In 2002, NASA started the first greenhouse system on the ISS. Mizuna was the first plant they grew, and after the success of fully growing the plant, they continued to grow plants and develop advanced greenhouse systems to continue growing plants.

When we explore space, or even think about it, we are taken to a different state of mind.

Making it to Mars will be a huge step in history, and once we make it there food won’t be shipped anymore, the responsibility will rely on the astronauts to grow their own food. It will provide the right nutrients to the astronauts, and give them a reminder of Earth. Once we take off into space everything will change, new technologies, new lifestyles, it will be the start of an amazing new era.

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Annotated Bibliography

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8 Webb, Carlyle. “Plant Biology Overview.” NASA, NASA, 16 Oct.

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