Helen Sharman’s Project Juno Mission: GotG22

Just over a week ago I spent a couple of hours at the Eden Project, so I thought I would show you some of the more unusual edible plants I came across while I was there.

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.

The original plant crew for the AeroGarden: Cuttings mission was garden mint, sage and rosemary. As I expected, the garden mint was the first to root, and is growing well – to the point of crowding the others out! Sage rooted second, and is putting on new growth. Rosemary was slow to root, but has now done so and is starting to show some new leaves!

My mission is to grow new things, in new ways.

The role downunder played in helping track the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon.

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.

Last week, Thales UK and Thales Alenia Space announced their MARSBalloon 2021 project. They plan to launch more than 150 experiment capsules on high altitude balloons 30km up into the Earth’s atmosphere in June 2021. At those altitudes, the gas pressure, temperature and radiation are very similar to those on the surface of Mars. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this project is that UK students will fill those experiment capsules. School students and science clubs can carry out Mars-analogue science experiments, with no costs beyond materials and postage. The only catch? It has to fit into a plastic Kinder Egg™ capsule.

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:

Can sending vines into space help wine production on Earth? Nicholas Gaume and Dr Michael Lebert from Space Cargo Unlimited join Emma the Space Gardener to discuss Mission WISE, and why they’ve sent both wine and vines to the International Space Station.

It’s common to hear Americans talk about their exciting experiences at Space Camp. It’s not often that students in the UK get to work with astronauts on a space experiment, but that’s exactly what’s on offer next summer at Mission Discovery – King’s College London 2023.

As we’re all stuck at home for the moment, I thought it would be nice to take some virtual tours of lovely places. It might lift our spirits momentarily, and give you some ideas of new places to visit when we are free to wander once more. It’s no secret that the Eden Project is one of my favourite places. I try and make an annual pilgrimage there. Our most recent visit was in February; some of these images are from October 2019.

Over the past few years, experiments in the Veggie growing system have proved that astronauts can grow edible plants on the International Space Station.