Word by Matt de Neef, The Conversation
21.08.2023 - 11:53 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
In the Hi-Seas habitat in Hawaii, analog astronauts take part in simulated space missions. Ben Greaves joins Emma the Space Gardener to talk about the isolation, the dehydrated diet, and his experiment growing microgreens in space-age hydrogel.
Built on the side of a volcano in Hawaii, the HI-SEAS habitat allows analog astronauts to experience the highs and lows of space missions without leaving Earth. In November 2020, Ben Greaves joined the Selene II mission for two weeks of isolation, rehydrated food, and science.
During his mission, Ben worked on a plant experiment growing microgreens (sunflowers and upland cress – Barbarea verna) in a new hydrogel material developed at the National University of Singapore.
Asst Prof Tan Swee Ching has developed hydrogels that use metal salts as their base and are able to absorb around three or four times their weight in water. Their ability to regulate humidity could be applied in smart farms, to grow crops in areas affected by water and food scarcity, and off-world.
And Ben talks about his new Mars Cookbook project, developing post-earth cuisine for future interplanetary pioneers! You can follow the project on Instagram.
At 10 a.m. EDT (4 p.m. CEST) Tuesday, May 4, NASA is hosting a webinar on Antarctic plant research.
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Word by Matt de Neef, The Conversation
Header image: Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage leaves prior to harvest aboard the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA
In Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs I talk about the journeys plants have made with us – crisscrossing the globe and leaving Earth entirely for missions in space.
Over our heads, on the International Space Station, chilli peppers are blooming and being hand-pollinated by astronauts.
Header image: Down House: the home (and garden) of Charles Darwin. Credit: <a href=«https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kent-england-october-25-2015-history-667797409?src=» http:>Shutterstock
Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, a weekly round-up of news and entertainment for people who rather fancy getting their hands dirty on another planet!
Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma talks to analog astronaut Elliot Roth, who recently spent two weeks in a simulated Moon mission. Find out why Elliot thinks we should pack algae when we leave Earth, and why we’d be better settling on Venus than Mars.
Join Emma the Space Gardener in the Gardeners of the Galaxy time machine to learn about the time that NASA encouraged schoolchildren all over the world to grow killer mutant space tomatoes. That can’t be right, can it?
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?
Header image: A SpaceX Dragon capsule, NASA Johnson/Flickr, CC BY-NC
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.