Growing Flowers In Space (nasa.gov)

An anonymous reader writes: This weekend, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly posted a picture of the first flower to bloom in space. The International Space Station has been home to the Veggie plant growth facility for almost two years, and scientists have been working hard to figure out how to keep crops alive in microgravity. It's a challenge to keep plants properly heated and hydrated, and their current specimens been attacked by mold as well. "More crops for Veggie are heading to the orbiting laboratory aboard SpaceX-8. The Veg-03 run will include two sets of Chinese cabbage, and one set of red romaine lettuce. In 2018, there are plans to launch dwarf tomato seeds to the space station. Smith said the lessons learned from growing zinnia flowers will be critical in the process of growing tomatoes, a fellow flowering plant. Studies are also in progress to see how adjusting the lighting in the Veggie plant growth facility can affect plan mineral composition. There will be preflight testing to determine what 'light recipe' to use aboard the station."

Comments

Nope, not the first

[Subgenius]

Sorry to be a wet blank here, but these were not the first blooms in space; the Soviets did it back in 1982

Plant growth, development and embryogenesis during Salyut-7 flight, Adv Space Res. 1984;4(10):55-63.

(info courtesy nasawatch.com)

Re:This is not seious science

[Anon-Admin]

The way you can tell is that the article mentions that their plants had been attacked by mold. Really? And why were mold spores allowed to come into the plant growth facility?

I take it you have never worked in mycology.

You can't eliminate them, they are everywhere and in amazing quantities. Even in my ISO Class 100 clean room working under a laminar flow hood, I still get the rare unintended mold growth in a culture. Normally from a simple procedure mistake.

You have mold spores on your skin, in your hair, on everything you own, etc.

Just for the fun of it I set up the laser particle counter in my kitchen one day, gave an average reading of 6,954,652 particles, at a flow rate of 0.1 CFM, between .3 microns and .5 microns per cubic foot of air.