Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!
21.08.2023 - 12:00 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
This week, Gardeners Off World watched as the latest SpaceX launch (CRS-19) delivered more exciting experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).
Two of the experiments will be of particular interest to interplanetary gardeners. The first involves worms, but the kind that we don’t see as they go about their essential work in the soil. The goal of the AstroNematodeproject is to develop biological controls for space pests. Their current experiment will investigate the movement and infection behaviour of beneficial nematodes, which control many agricultural insect pests. The researchers have sent sealed soil columns containing the nematodes and waxworms (Galleria mellonella), which will spend 30 days in space. They’ll be testing how nematodes move through the soil, reproduce and infect insect pests, and whether the symbiotic bacteria will function the same way in microgravity.
“Beneficial nematodes are part of a healthy soil microbiome necessary for agriculture. Understanding how they operate in microgravity is an important step toward growing crops on the Moon and Mars. This investigation could lead to improved pesticides and better understanding of new pheromones. The results also could help improve use of beneficial nematodes on Earth.”
The second involves seeds, and growing plants in space. For beer.
In March 2017 Budweiser proclaimed its intentions to be the first beer on Mars. In December that year, they send the first two Bud on Mars experiments to the ISS, to investigate how microgravity affects barley seedlings. (And Slate carried an article reviewing the challenges of brewing beer in space.)
The Germination of ABI Voyager Barley Seeds in Microgravity project evaluates the effects of a microgravity environment
Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!
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
It’s Day 19 of the Great British Blast Off, and crew is finding it hard to adjust to life in the isolation of space. Mission Control is having trouble controlling its Isonauts, many of whom keep popping out of the airlock on “essential business”. Some of the Space Dogs are complaining of exhaustion from all the extra spacewalks.