Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!
21.08.2023 - 11:53 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
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.
During her time on the ISS, Christina worked on the Veggie gardening experiments. In this video, she shows us how the astronauts watered the mizuna growing in VEG-04B:
You can get a better look at the Veggie system in this EuroNews video, in which NASA astronaut Drew Morgan answers the question “Which food plants grow best on the ISS?”
The next commercial supply mission to the ISS (NG-13) is due to launch on Sunday at 22:39 GMT. You can watch the lunch live via NASA TV, where coverage starts at 22:00. One of the experiments launching (as I mentioned last week) will investigate the relationship between cowpeas and their symbiotic partner:
NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) launched to the ISS in June 2018. It sees the process by which plants lose excess water through pores on their leaves to cool themselves down – evapotranspiration. The space station’s orbit means that the instrument passes over the same areas at different times of the day.
This image combines data collected every morning during a summer season at Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes of North America. The data allowed the mission team to see when plants “wake up” and get going for the day. The earliest risers were near the lake, with plant activity spreading gradually northwestward
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! 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.