Thefirst zinnias are blooming in space , but they almost did n’t make it from bud to flower . This is a story of how an experiment was saved by throwing out heavily regulate , elaborated procedures in favor of using human judgement on the fly .
Correction : This was n’t the first flower to blossom in blank , but it ’s still gorgeous .
cosmonaut grow edible flora in the Veggie facility on the International Space Station . It took themtwo triesto rise red romaine lettuce — they drown the first plenty — and it briefly looked like it would take them another two tries to raise a flowering plant .
old maid plants starting to grow on the International Space Station . Image reference : NASA
Two weeks after found zinnias , astronaut Kjell Lindgren spotted water seep out of the plant life pillow wick . He pound around and found that three of the plants were drowning in urine .
Ten days later , scientists calculate at photo were horror-struck to see water droplets along some leaf edges , while other leaf were starting to dramatically turn and curl . The weewee droplets were a sign of high humidity , causing redundant body of water to be force out of leaf tip . The curling leaves were a symptom of flood radical . Together , they were a sign of too much water supply and not enough tune flowing .
Astronauts did n’t have meter to mend the trouble . They had an pinch spacewalk and could n’t spend quality time with their plants , so they bumped the fan to high and hoped it would be good enough .
But the plants could n’t wait . Tissue was start to die . Then they lead off to mold . Mold is n’t just a problem for the Veggie garden . In the limited air circulation of the space place , it ’s also a potential wellness endangerment for the crew . At the first signal of mold , NASA made a 4 am phone call to the Veggie undertaking lead investigator to make this right now .
Oh no ! mould on the zinnias ! figure of speech credit : NASA
Veggie fountainhead scientist Trent Smith was hauled out of bed early on December 22 , 2015 , and chop-chop assembled his team . Within four 60 minutes , they ’d draught novel procedures for astronaut / emergency - nurseryman Scott Kelly . equip with a dust mask just in compositor’s case , Kelly slew out the mouldy tissue and bag it up for the freezer for later subject field on Earth . He sanitize all approachable surfaces with cleaning wipe .
On Christmas Eve , Kelly reported fresh job with his garden . Having the devotee incessantly on high to inhibit mold was dry out the harvest out too much , but the next scheduled watering was n’t until the 27th .
At this stop , Kelly very politely lost his humor . “ I mean that would be too late , ” he argue with the ground faculty . “ You experience , I think if we ’re fail to Mars , and we were grow clobber , we would be responsible for determine when the stuff require H2O . Kind of like in my backyard , I look at it and say ‘ Oh , maybe I should water the grass today . ’ I conceive this is how this should be handle . ”
Instead of being annoyed at bear his project take over , Smith was ecstatic . He had a volunteer - spaceman willing to care for his plant personally alternatively of blindly following a pre - set job list ? Best Science Christmas Ever !
Zinnias on the rebound with fresh bud . Image credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
The Veggie team argufy their book of detailed procedures , and created a aerodynamic “ The Zinnia Care Guide for the On - Orbit Gardener . ” Instead of set schedules and subprogram , it was a concise hardening of canonical guideline to help astronaut - gardeners habituate their human judgment .
Kelly ’s autonomous vacation gardening pay off . Two plants kick the bucket , joining the moldy folio in the Deepfreeze for later study . But the remaining two works thrived , not just surviving but growing young branch of bud .
On January 12th , flower petal first take off to peek out of the bud . Far earlier than the expected 7 - 10 days later , the earth receive the first photo of a flower maturate only in space on January 16th , 2016 .
flower petal beginning to go forth on January 12 , 2016 . ikon credit : NASA
The good - unsuccessful person of this harvest of zinnias was a acquisition experience . How did the plant react to the changing fan and watering condition ? Could an astronaut be more effective act independently than shut up into follow automatise procedure ? And once the blossom blossom , how would they be unlike than their planetary kin ?
Smith have sex from the beginning the zinnias would present a challenge , even to experienced spaceman - gardener . “ The zinnia plant is very different from lucre , ” he explained ina press loss . “ It is more sensitive to environmental parameters and light characteristics . ” Zinnias are not just more difficult to grow , but they also take longer — between 60 to 80 solar day from seed to bloom . But they ’re also scientifically useful plant , supply an introduction to flowers in microgravity and acting as a stepping - endocarp to eventually acquire finicky tomatoes .
This ability to flip-flop crops yet work up on anterior experience is a strength of the Veggie growth facility . The science setup was installed on the post in May 2014 . Now every new experiment involve acquire plants in space can use the same intent with raw plants , and astronauts can follow the same canonic procedure cut for any particular pauperism . This bring down down on both the economic and intellectual costs of continuing to experiment with growing food in space .
Zinnias blooming on the distance station in January 2016 . icon recognition : NASA / Scott Kelly
The experiment is n’t done yet . The next SpaceX lading course to the space station will carry more crop for Veggie : two sets of Chinese cabbage , and another solidification of red romaine lettuce lettuce . see even further onwards to 2018 , the team hopes to get dwarf love apple seminal fluid .
[ NASA ]
Top image : Space flowers in the sun for the very first clip . mental image course credit : NASA / Scott Kelly
get in touch with the author at[email protected]or keep up her at@MikaMcKinnon .
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