Space station Ideas, Tips & Guides

Header image: Chinese astronauts Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming during ceremony before heading to Tiangong. ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA

As NASA plans missions to the Moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crew members during their weeks, months, and even years in space.

The current crew (Shenzhou-16) on China’s Tiangong space station are growing a crop of lettuce. This video shows them watering the crop (from the bottom).

China Central Television has produced a short video showing the plant experiments growing on the Tiangong space station. The Shenzhou-16 crew has been in orbit for almost three months, and says their space vegetable garden has given a good lettuce harvest.

Header image: Good enough to eat – ‘Outredgeous’ lettuce grown under pink lights on the International Space Station. NASA, CC BY-SA

Header image: Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage leaves prior to harvest aboard the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

While we’re waiting for Tim Peake to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) to begin his Principia mission, I thought it might be fun to have a look at the first Briton in space – Helen Sharman, who was also the first woman to visit the Mir space station, in 1991.

Over our heads, on the International Space Station, chilli peppers are blooming and being hand-pollinated by astronauts.

Hello! Welcome to Gardeners off World. The big news for space gardeners this week is that NASA has determined that the salads grown in Veggie are safe to eat. And a team of Russian researchers have developed a prototype for an orbital greenhouse. The Orbital Biological Automatic Module includes smart lighting to accelerate plant growth, specialised hydroponics, automated irrigation and harvesting solutions. It could be heading to the International Space Station (ISS) – “Humanity’s home in Low Earth Orbit” – in the next few years.

Rupesh Paudyal, University of Leeds

Join Emma the Space Gardener on the Tiangong space station to learn about China’s botanical experiments in space, and why Chinese consumers are eagerly awaiting rice from heaven. Plus – what was the first plant grown in space?

In December 2015, as we were waiting for Tim Peake to launch to the ISS and start his Principia mission, I talked about Helen Sharman, the first Briton in space. In that blog post, I quoted David M. Harland, from his book The Mir Space Station: A Precursor to Space Colonization:

Header image: Rendering of Tiangong Space Station in late July 2022, along with June 2022 with Tianhe core module in the middle, Wentian lab module on the left, Tianzhou cargo spacecrafts on right, and Shenzhou-14 crewed spacecraft at nadir. Image credit Shujianyang via Wikipedia.

If I was in charge of a space botany program and had to choose which plants to grow in space, I don’t think orchids would make it onto the list. For one thing, they’re not that simple to grow – orchid seeds only germinate in the presence of their chosen fungal partner. And although they’re beautiful, orchids are hardly an essential crop (even though some of them produce an edible starch that is used to make a drink called salep and ice cream and is one of my ethnobotanical fascinations). The Soviet Union, however, made a different choice, sending tropical orchid plants and seeds to the Salyut 6 space station.

NASA’s latest Space to Ground video includes some lovely images of the Veggie PONDS experiment that’s currently running on the International Space Station. Starting from 00:44, you can see images of the Veggie PONDS modules, radishes and chile peppers that were grown in the Advanced Plant Habitat, the PONDS modules installed in both Veggie units, and a nice clear view of the PONDS modules.

Today is International Coffee Day, but what about those intrepid humans who have gone beyond Earth?

Header image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office

The December edition of the Space Boffins podcast is here, and it features me talking about space plants!

Header image: NASA / Tracy Caldwell Dyson

In 2021, One Giant Leap Australia sent golden wattle seeds into space, as part of a nationwide STEM project to explore “What’ll Happen to the Wattle??!”. In this episode, Emma the Space Gardener talks to Jackie Carpenter about how the seeds got to space, and then back home again, and what’s next for the space-flown wattle seeds.

Food for the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) is usually delivered well in advance. They get a few fresh treats whenever a cargo ship arrives (or if they grow their own!), but they’re a bit too far away to order take out.

NBC News has made a lovely short video about NASA’s Plant Processing Lab at the Kennedy Space Center. Joshua Johnson reports on how NASA scientists are researching how to grow plants in space to make long-term space travel sustainable, and how research partners at the University of Florida are growing plants in soil from the Moon. 

Artemis I may be getting all of the attention right now, but on the International Space Station, the crew has grown a crop of radishes in XROOTS, and sowed tomatoes!

In January 2012, NASA astronaut Don Pettit conducted one of the most famous space plants experiments of all time… and it wasn’t even official!

We all know that spaceflight is tricky, and after 18 months of hearing about some amazing astrobotany successes, in this episode, Emma the Space Gardener looks into some space plant experiments that didn’t quite go according to plan. An astrobotanical blooper reel, if you like. 

In episode 35, Emma the Space Gardener explores why bioregenerative life support systems are things we only see in the movies, and how far NASA has come in its quest to build a space salad machine.

Over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that we are not alone. I not referring to aliens; I’m talking about the fact that each and every human being comes complete with their own microbiome – a collection of microbes that they take with them wherever they go. For example, if we move home, it only takes about 24 hours for your microbiome to overwrite the previous owners left behind. 

I don’t know about you, but at the end of the day I really enjoy getting into bed and letting my whole body relax, feeling the weight of the covers and getting really cosy! But sleeping in space – without gravity – is a different kettle of fish altogether.

The Mengtian laboratory cabin module has successfully docked with the Chinese Tiangong space station, and Tiangong is now complete.

I was sowing some brassica seeds for the hydroponicum recently. It’s a fiddly job, they’re tiny seeds and I’m sowing them into wet compost plugs. If my fingers get wet then the seeds would rather stick to me than the compost! At one point I dropped a seed packet down onto the table, so I could wipe my hands, and it occurred to me that this simple task – a ritual gardeners on Earth do so often – would be impossible in space.