Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!
21.08.2023 - 11:47 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
Welcome to my new weekly round-up of the most exciting interplanetary gardening news!
The big news in space this week is that NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have completed the first all-female spacewalk. Not the first spacewalk by a woman, of course. It’s just the first time a multi-person spacewalk has featured only women on the roster.
The spacewalk was all about replacing batteries or blah blah blah, but back inside the ISS Christina Koch was doing some gardening. The Veggie growth system is currently running investigation Veg-04B, exploring the effects of light quality and fertiliser on mizuna, as well as microbial food safety, nutritional value and the taste acceptability. Christina was thinning out the seedlings, leaving the most robust specimens to grow.
Yesterday the Design Museum in London opened their new Moving to Mars exhibition, which will run until February 23 2020. It’s designed to be an immersive experience, allowing you to step into a full-scale Mars home, explore the untouched beauty of the Martian landscape and “learn how rethinking daily life for a zero-waste, clean energy-powered civilisation might help future generations on Earth.” You can see hydroponic veg in action, or check out a Martian fashion show.
The exhibition has received plenty of press, including reviews from NewScientist and the Guardian.
If you can’t make it to London, then you can have a virtual Mars-like experience, courtesy of Google. Earlier this year, Google visited a Mars analog site in the Canadian arctic and added it to Google Earth and StreetView. Devon Island is the largest uninhabited island in the world and has some distinctly Mars-like qualities. EarthSky has some links to excellent places to start exploring,
Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!
This week, Gardeners Off World watched as the latest SpaceX launch (CRS-19) delivered more exciting experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).
This morning, the Boeing Company’s CST-100 Starliner capsule launched on its first mission to the International Space Station. The aim of this uncrewed Orbital Test Flight (OFT) was to demonstrate that the spacecraft is ready to transport NASA astronauts and cargo. An instrumented mannequin named Rosie (named after the WW2 icon Rosie the Riveter, and a nod to the trailblazing women in aerospace and human spaceflight) took the place of a crew.
Welcome interplanetary gardeners! This week’s Gardeners off World starts with a little video Boeing has put together of the inside of the crew cabin on the recent Starliner test flight (the one that took tree seeds into space). You can see Rosie the instrumented mannequin, but the highlight is watching astronaut Snoopy float about as the spacecraft reaches orbit, and then plop back down into his seat during the descent!
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.
Hello! Welcome to Gardeners Off World. This week we’ll start with a musical interlude, as violinist Lindsey Stirling recently performed her song, Artemis, on top of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center:
Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, your round-up of interplanetary news and views. NASA’s Christina Koch returned to Earth yesterday, after spending 328 days onboard the International Space Station (ISS) – the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Koch participated in three expeditions – 59, 60 and 61 – during her first spaceflight. ESA’s Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov came home on the same flight.
Hello, and welcome to Gardeners off World! On 15 February, the NG-13 cargo ship blasted off from NASA Wallops on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). It arrived on 18 February, where NASA astronaut Drew Morgan caught it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
What did you get for Christmas? Hopefully something good, something seedy and something spacey!
This week, Gardeners Off World is blasting off to celebrate an off-world Thanksgiving. Let’s rehydrate some turkey!
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!
Welcome to Gardeners Off World, my weekly round-up of news for green-fingered space nuts! It’s time to suit up and head out into the solar system