Plants in Space: CRS-18
21.08.2023 - 11:58
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
At 11 pm on Friday (BST, 18:01 EDT), SpaceX launched an uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). This Dragon capsule has been to the ISS twice before, making it the first to fly in space for a third time. This is the 18th SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract mission for NASA: CRS-18.
This afternoon, Expedition 60 Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA used the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to capture Dragon. It’s carrying 5000 or so pounds (about 2200 kg) of science experiments and essential supplies into space, some of which involve plants (and a couple of which are just a little odd).
One of the experiments that the astronauts will then have to unpack is a UK-led international project to build space rock mining devices. On Earth, microbes are used in commercial mining, to break down rocks and liberate the minerals we want. The idea behind the Biorock project is to investigate how that process might work in microgravity, and on Mars, but microbes could also be used to turn lunar/Martian rocks into soil for agriculture, or to liberate nutrients for use in a life-support system.
And then there’s Space Moss, an experiment to compare mosses (bryophytes) grown on the space station with those grown on Earth to determine how microgravity affects growth, development, gene expression, photosynthesis, and other features. Mosses are tiny plants without roots, which makes them idea for ISS experiments, and they show changes in biomass and photosynthesis rate in response to changes in gravity. Mosses may be good sources of food (yum!) and oxygen for long-term space missions or off-world bases, but a better understanding of the mechanisms of moss response to
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