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Space Station Science

Picture of the Day

May 28, 2003

Gone to Seed
Photo credit: The crew of ISS Expedition 7, NASA

May 28, 2003: One month ago, these peas were full of life and vivid
green. Now they're brown and dry; they've "gone to seed." It happens
in gardens on Earth all the time. These seeds are special, however,
because they were grown in space, inside the Russian Lada greenhouse
onboard the International Space Station (ISS). 

On May 16th, ISS commander Yuri Malenchenko took the brown plants
and stored them whole in ziplock bags filled with silica gel. Later
they'll be taken out again, the seeds harvested and planted to grow a
second generation of space-peas. If all goes well they'll become the
first legumes to reproduce in Earth-orbit.

This is the fifth "seed-to-seed" experiment conducted by Russian
researchers. They've grown Arabidopsis onboard a Salyut spacecraft,
turnip greens and wheat onboard Mir, and now peas on the
International Space Station. 

There's a reason for testing such a variety of plants. Dr. Vladimir
Sychev of the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow explains:
"Advanced life support systems will eventually include different
kinds of plants to provide crews with diverse and well balanced
foods. This is why we think it's important to experiment with many
species and to understand whether there is a correlation between
plant species and their capability to grow and bear fruit in
microgravity." 

Can space-faring peas produce viable seeds? We'll soon find out....

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