Yesterday I read that Trump adviser Myron Ebell, a climate change denier, thinks that the green movement is the greatest threat to freedom.
21.08.2023 - 11:49 / theunconventionalgardener.com / Emma Doughty
Back in 2014, I bought some seeds that had been into space. They are cinnamon basil (Ocimum basilicum Cinnamon), still sealed into their space packet.
According to the description:
“These seeds were flown to space on mission STS-121 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and attached to the exterior of the International Space Station on July 4, 2006. The seed remained attached as a component of the MISSE (Materials International Space Station Experiment) and returned to Earth on mission STS-118 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on August 21, 2007.”
There’s a lot of information there to unpack. The first question I asked was whether it could be right that they launched on STS-121 but came back to Earth on STS-118. Weren’t the shuttle missions numbered sequentially? I looked it up, and it turns out that they were, mostly. But they were numbered as they were planned, and not as they were launched, so when missions got moved around in the schedule, their numbering didn’t change. (Wikipedia has a list of all the space shuttle missions, in launch order.) In this particular case, it was the Columbia disaster that forced the changes.
“Before the accident, Columbia had been assigned to missions STS-118 and STS-121. The STS-118 mission, also an International Space Station flight, was at first reassigned to Discovery, but was later assigned to Space Shuttle Endeavour.”
STS-121 was the only shuttle to launch on Independence Day, July 4. It was the second spaceflight for astronaut Mark Kelly, twin brother of Scott Kelly. Also onboard was Piers Sellers, who was born in England. He became an American citizen in 1991 so that he would be eligible to join the NASA astronaut corps. He later became a renowned climate scientist but sadly died in
Yesterday I read that Trump adviser Myron Ebell, a climate change denier, thinks that the green movement is the greatest threat to freedom.
Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps the latest space plant news and then talks about some of the seeds with space stories.
Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, which seems like a good time to take the next step on our space adventure. You choose the topic of bees in space, so here we go!
Wimbledon fortnight coincides with the height of the strawberry season here in the UK and the humble strawberry becomes world-famous as tennis spectators tuck into strawberries and cream in front of the cameras. This year it even looks like they’ll be able to leave their raincoats at home!
I’m not a chemist, but I do find plant chemistry (and the links and patterns between different plants) to be a fascinating topic. Fortunately there are chemists out there who can bring these to our attention, and Compound Interest includes some great plant-related infographics amongst a wider spread of chemical topics.
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.
One of the nerdy things I enjoy doing in my spare time is researching the first seeds to have made it into space. This is what I have found so far:
From the moment humans started to reach for the skies, we have used other species from Earth to test what’s safe and what happens to life away from its natural habitat on the planet’s surface.
Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps important spacecraft Arrivals and Departures and learns about growing nutrients and medicines in space. There’s a new plant experiment running on the International Space Station, and exciting news from ESA.
Header image: NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio uses a video camera to photograph the Ant Forage Habitat. Image credit: NASA
Worms were the only survivors when space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry in 2003. Caenorhabditis elegans, nematodes, had been sent into space to test a synthetic nutrient solution. Their naturally short life-span meant that the survivors were several generations removed from the worms that were blasted into space at the beginning of the mission. Nematodes experiments have also been conducted on the International Space Station (ISS), looking at the effect of microgravity – it turns out that these worms can suffer muscle mass loss in the same way as humans do. Nematodes weren’t the only worms included on that fateful mission; among the student experiments (which included space bees) was one that aimed to investigate mealworms (Tenebrio molitor). Sadly they didn’t survive.
I imagine the Apollo 11 astronauts had plenty to do while they were hurtling towards the Moon, but from a bystander’s perspective it was probably pretty dull stuff. Still, it’s Day 3 of the mission, so let’s have a look at what they’ve got stashed away in their space age picnic basket.