Plants are fundamental to the future of human space exploration, serving as essential life support, food sources, and psychological anchors for long-duration missions, with ongoing research focused on optimizing their growth in extraterrestrial environments.
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Plants are our most important partners in our quest for space exploration.
How well we can grow plants in space will determine the fate
of our interplanetary ambitions.
We got to talk to one of the top experts in the field. But
the ultimate objective is growing plants on,
the moon to learn what not to do.
Because when you get to Mars, you can't really make mistakes.
This is plants in space.
Hey, I'm Tasha, and you're watching Floralogic.
Today, we're looking up at the stars to look for space plants.
Nope.
I'm not talking about a monster from a sci-fi flick, but
rather our favorite space station carry ons.
Plants have always been an important part of humanity's dreams of space travel.
In fact, we launched Plant Seeds into space 15 years
before we mustered up the courage to climb into manned spacecraft ourselves.
Even pre crewed missions, we understood that
the conditions of space were probably less than habitable for humans.
So sending seeds enabled us to get a first glimpse into how microgravity
and the ionizing radiation of space would impact biological life forms.
The first case of sending plant matter into space was in 1946,
when seeds were strapped to a scientific rocket in White Sands, New Mexico.
These rockets, called V-2, were the first long range guided ballistic missiles.
They were developed by the Nazis
and captured by the Americans during the Second World War.
Between 1946 and 1952.
Many such rocket launches took place carrying a variety of seeds
beyond the Karman line, which is widely accepted as the edge of space.
At about 100km above sea level.
These first space bound seeds included corn,
rye, and cottonseed, as well as fungus spores.
After these seeds were brought back to Earth,
they were planted to see if there were still viable.
Scientists learned that while germination can be delayed
or rates reduced by exposure to space, most seeds were still good to grow.
The most famous of these space seeds became what are known as the moon trees.
As part of NASA's third trip to the lunar surface in 1971,
astronaut and former U.S.
Forest Service smoke jumper Stuart Roosa brought thousands of loblolly pine,
sycamore, sweet gum, redwood, and Douglas fir seeds along for the ride.
The U.S.
Forest Service sent these seeds with them and kept some on Earth as a control group
to see if there was any difference
in germination and growth after their time in space.
Many of the space seeds grew and were later
planted in special ceremonies to commemorate the bicentennial
of the establishment of the United States in 1976.
You can still find moon trees and their half moon tree descendants today
all around the U.S.
even more than 50 years later, we're still sending seeds into space,
and they're being run through the gantlet on the International Space Station.
In 2021,
barley seeds provided by a popular whiskey brand were added to the materials
International Space Station Experiment platform located outside the ISS.
Here, the seeds are exposed to extremes
as the ISS whips around the Earth once every 90 ish minutes.
As the ISS orbits
in and out of the Earth's shadow, the temperature fluctuates about 200°C.
The results of these kinds of experiments help to inform us of what kind of plants
might be viable crops in the harshest conditions of space.
Once back on Earth, the barley seeds that were on the platform germinated
seemingly completely unfazed by their insane journey.
The space barley seeds that weren't grown for science
were sent back to the distiller
to make what I can only assume will one day be called space whiskey.
And in a nod to the original Moon Tree's Artemis one,
an uncrewed mission that explored the moon in 2022 once again
brought seeds from loblolly pine, American sycamore, sycamore,
Douglas fir and giant sequoia trees for a new generation of moon trees on Earth.
But space plant
research isn't just about seeing if seeds will germinate on Earth after reentry.
Experiments also center around growing plants in the conditions of space.
Since the very future of habitation in space and on other planets utterly
depends on it.
We wanted to understand the logistics of space farming,
so our producer, Andreas,
asked one of the world's top experts in growing plants in controlled environments
to tell us all about the challenges of extraterrestrial farming.
I'm Doctor Mike Dixon.
I am the director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility
and the university professor emeritus at the University of Guelph.
I was reading of your papers and of course, two of the main issues
are air pressure and also the formula of the gases that you put in that air.
So could you tell me a little bit of how that affects the plants?
And also do we try to
imitate earth air into those environments,
or are there other formulas that work better in those situations?
Yeah, that's an excellent question.
The, scientific issue that we addressed back 25 years ago,
how low can you take the pressure and still have plants
performing their functions that we require of them food, oxygen,
recycling fresh water, scrubbing CO2 and making us feel good.
And if the answer had been, well, you need full earth atmosphere, then
with the
kind of technology that we can consider today, human space exploration is done.
Building space farms with conditions identical to those of Earth
is simply impossible right now.
And even if it was possible, it would take so much energy to do that
it would be more efficient to just deliver food in spaceships.
So can we do it without an Earth like atmosphere?
Well, it turns out plants are pretty tough.
We could take the pressure down to one tenth of Earth's atmospheric pressure.
So roughly ten kilopascals total pressure.
As long as seven of them are
water vapor point one
and a little bit of argon or nitrogen as a buffer gas.
So that's the recipe.
And if you start seeds under those conditions,
they will perform as though they're growing in your backyard garden.
So success.
I mean, human space exploration can continue.
But that means that the weak link will be suspiciously great ape shaped.
So plants are not going to be the limitation.
It's us. We're the weakness.
We we we can't survive at ten
kilopascals and seven kilopascals of oxygen.
We need, you know, 20 plus KPA of oxygen.
Our respiration demands are are much greater than plants.
So plants aren't going to be the limitation.
And they will be our life support.
The other, factor is gravity.
Is there any effect on plants?
There's a low gravity.
The only experience we had there is some of the experiments
that our colleagues at NASA deployed on the International Space Station,
and they have a centrifuge there that allows them to replicate partial gravity,
like one sixth or one
third, which is Mars and the moon, in my opinion.
And this is really like widely held.
We don't need to consider microgravity, such as the International Space Station,
because remember that mass and energy issue.
We don't need to spin those mass and energy,
resources in low-Earth orbit because we can just resupply,
the International Space Station indefinitely, as we do.
It's when we get on the surface of Mars
that it becomes much, much more,
required and almost critical in the long term.
So we have to figure out what not to do on the moon,
which is what is currently the plan.
I don't know where it's going now, but figure it out.
What? The challenges are in a
in A16 gravity well, but at least there's an up and a down.
And so water will go around in a reasonably predictable way.
You know, we can do the arithmetic and figure that all out.
But we have to get it done
before we have long term exploration
missions to Mars with many explorers that require life support.
The food grown on Mars
would have to be small plants that grow in high densities.
Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, leafy greens, high calorie staples
like potatoes and protein rich plants like soybeans and duckweed.
Farm animals would be too energetically expensive to grow.
So meat is off the menu.
Medicinal plants are another key component of space farming.
We're working with a with a
molecular biology group,
working with tobacco.
A specific strain of tobacco that produces the, breast
cancer drug Herceptin, with process that the that that,
the red sage is another crop.
We're looking at, medicinal mushrooms.
There's a there's a wide range of them.
And we're working on one particular strain called reishi,
which is, which has medicinal applications.
And then nutraceuticals like mint,
and cilantro
or other crops that we're looking at which have,
you know, broad range, tech transfer
to commercial, commercial opportunities.
Looking even further than that.
There are greater challenges if we ever venture beyond Mars.
First of all, taking supplies for missions
that could be years long is not sustainable.
Food will have to be grown in space to keep those on board fed in the long run.
Secondly, in the almost perfect vacuum of space, there's nothing
but a few protons per square meter and certainly no breathable air.
Humans figured out long ago that we need to bio oxygen when leaving Earth.
We've already come up with ways to create oxygen in space.
On the ISS, they use a process called electrolysis, in which electricity
is run through water and splits the bonded hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
But plants not only make oxygen, they also absorb the pesky carbon dioxide
we exhale.
Thirdly, plants are good for our well-being.
We know from our lives on Earth
that being near plants is good for our mental health.
In Japan, it's called shin rin yoku or forest bathing,
which is the therapeutic act of simply being among the trees.
Doctors in Japan will recommend shin rin yoku to patients
who are removed from nature in urban settings for their well-being.
What could be more removed from nature than being hundreds
of thousands or even millions of kilometers from Earth?
According to NASA, fresh flowers and gardens in space
give astronauts a beautiful environment and let them stay connected to nature
on Earth.
They also promote overall psychological well-being for crew members.
But growing plants in microgravity would be a challenge.
We know that being in microgravity too long has a serious impact
on the human body, causing everything from bone loss to muscle atrophy
to changes in balance, the immune system, and even eyesight.
We also know from Earth that it's almost impossible to study
deep sea fish on the surface,
because the difference in pressure changes them so dramatically.
Sometimes even killing them.
It's why the internet famous blobfish looks like a pile of goo on the surface.
So how would plants fare in space in the absence of gravity?
How would they grow
without the orientation gravity gives to their roots and shoots?
NASA had its first harvest in 2015 with a batch of red lettuce.
The space lettuce proved to be more bitter than red lettuce on Earth,
which is likely due to increased levels of the squid or lactose, naturally
protective chemicals
that occur in these types of lettuces when they're grown under stress.
The purpose of these protective chemicals is to combat potential bacteria or fungi,
discourage neighboring plants from stealing resources,
or make curious animals, or even astronauts want to avoid
eating them.
Apparently, the astronauts didn't mind,
because everything tastes slender in space.
The fluids in the body pool more evenly all over, causing slight nasal congestion
and making it like trying to taste food when you have a head cold.
Soon after the first lettuce came space's first flowers, zinnias in 2016,
which were immortalized by Commander Scott Kelly with his photo and caption.
Yes, there are other life forms in space, much like the zinnias he grew.
Kelly himself was a space experiment, just like the moon tree seeds.
After a year aboard the ISS, Scott Kelly was compared to his control
subject, his twin brother Mark, who had remained on Earth
to test for physiological, molecular and cognitive changes.
After his retirement, Kelly was given some dried zinnia seeds from the flowers
he grew in space to plant in his own garden.
Since then, we've successfully grown in Earth's bounty of crops in space
from cucumbers, cabbage, wheat, mustard,
rice, and romaine lettuce to sunflowers and tulips.
Currently on the ISS, there's a greenhouse called the Vegetable Production System,
or veggie for short, that serves the dual purpose of scientific study
and giving the astronauts aboard some much appreciated fresh produce.
When you're eating rehydrated, freeze dried meals out of a bag for months,
a nice green, crunchy cucumber must taste like the heavens.
These gardens aren't the ones of sci fi that take up an entire area of the ship.
Veggie is only about the size of a carry on suitcase.
Each plant is grown in a sort of pillow
chock full of play like soil and fertilizer.
Plants are grown this way because in zero gravity, roots
spread in weird directions, loose soil floats away
and water beads, which kills the plants from drought.
If you've ever seen a video
of how liquid turns itself into glistening spheres in space,
you'll get the need for creating a basis for plants that keep soil together
and roots hydrated and help gravity to guide their upward growth.
LED lights that mimic the sun tell these space plants which direction to grow.
Actually, let's see what liquids look like in space again.
Amazing.
The other garden on the ice is called the Advanced Plant
Habitat and is automated and controlled from earth.
Sensors and cameras constantly monitor the growth of the plants,
and water is automatically given.
The only care they need from the astronauts is harvesting
when they're ready.
One of the goals of the advanced plant habitat is to understand
how microgravity affects lignin, the plant equivalent of bones,
and if plants are genetically modified to have less lignin,
good potentially be more nutritious and easier to compost in space.
Having a constant supply of nutritious food is going to be essential
for long distance space travel.
A one way trip to Mars currently would take about nine months.
NASA sends food supplies to the ISS on average every 45 days,
which means we'd have to have good crops to be able to make it to Mars and back.
And that's not even accounting for the time spent on the barren red planet.
Okay, so through all of these experiments, we know that although it's more
challenging to grow plants in orbit, it is entirely possible.
But what about on the moon?
An experiment in 2022 set out to understand
if plants could be grown in soil taken from the moon.
Samples from the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 were used to grow
mustard family member Dale cress.
All the samples did grow,
but were not as robust and showed genetic signs of stress.
This research is also aiming to help us understand how we can
modify plants to grow in less than ideal conditions on Earth.
But it's not just in lunar soil.
Plants have also now been grown on the moon itself.
In January 2019, China's Chang'e four lunar lander touched down on the far side
with a miniature growth chamber
stocked with cotton, rapeseed, potatoes and Arabidopsis seeds on board.
The purpose of this experiment was to lay the foundation
for future habitation on the moon in space research.
Almost everything has applications on Earth.
The learning from these missions can help us grow crops in food deserts
and polar regions.
They could also help us grow medicinal plants all over the world.
So what else would Mike like to see grown on our only natural satellite?
Remember the space barley we mentioned earlier?
Yep, that was Mike. I was part of it.
The International Committee of the Candidate Crop selection Committee.
And as the Canadian delegate,
at the very
first meeting I attended at Kennedy Space Center, I proposed Barley and Rose's
roses, I
rationalized, were the psychological benefits.
Imagine the favors you could get with that first dozen roses from the moon.
Nevertheless, roses, were rejected.
Because, once again, that mass and the energy you can't afford, the mass
and energy cost of growing a plant that you're not going to eat,
that it's driven by food. So.
Okay.
Roses wrote I accepted that, and I put barley on the table
and I made the mistake of supporting my, my, submission
with the, proclamation that humans
always make alcohol.
Sadly, this was an argument that in the low
gravity environment of the moon didn't hold much weight.
That is, until Ray Wheeler, a crop scientist at NASA
and a kindred spirit, joined the team.
So Ray and I, over dinner at his place one night, we colluded.
And, barley is now officially on the human space exploration candidate.
That was a huge win for people who like beer and whiskey.
And a great day for Canada and therefore the world.
Thanks, Mike, for taking the time to chat with us for the future of space Plants.
I am simply over the moon.
The sky's the limit in what they can achieve.
My advice about growing plants in space.
Keep reaching for the stars until then.
Thank you, my lucky stars that were surrounded by plants down here on Earth.
So what should we talk about next?
Let me know in the comments below
and be sure to subscribe for new videos every week. Bye!
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