Astronaut Scott Kelly has delightedly announced that the first bloom ever to be grown in space has bloomed aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) . According toThe Independent , the plant life – a Zinnia – has grown 13 hopeful orange petals .
First ever bloom grown in space makes its debut!#SpaceFlower#zinnia#YearInSpacepic.twitter.com/2uGYvwtLKr
— Scott Kelly ( @StationCDRKelly)January 16 , 2016
The Zinnia is a genus of plant life that belong within the daisy family . Although vibrant , they are n’t the most strikingly beautiful peak cultivate by humanity . allot to a NASA blog explaining the horticultural space - based project , however , beauty was n’t the point of the experimentation .
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren “ activated ” the zinnia seed beds last November , in the hope that they ’d grow for around 60 Day . The Zinnia is a unwashed flower that may indicate how other , more useful plant could grow in microgravity environments .
This first endeavor at growing Zinnias was a failure , and melancholy pic of curled , musty Zinnia leaf were twirp by Kelly from the ISS . This recent attempt was clearly more successful , and follow on from the ISS crew ’s other successful horticultural labor : growingedible , red romaine bread .
Both were attain by using the Veggie system , a growth method acting that use colour in LEDs to help the plant arise . LEDs , as they macerate almostno energy on heat , use 60 pct less energy than traditional plant inflammation systems . crimson and blue light-emitting diode , which give off the most light , were used to perk up plant maturation in the lettuce , but the fleeceable LEDs were also meagrely used in society to make certain the plants develop with amore appealing , less - purplehue .
The next space gardening project , due to start in 2018 , will hope to arise tomatoes in low - Earth orbit . All three crops are part of a new space husbandry project by NASA that aims to see which crops , particularly eatable ones , can be grown not only in microgravity , but also perhaps on the surface ofnearby planet . Being able to do so would obviously be of heavy benefit to space travel , as it could prolong mission and perhaps also help settlement of other satellite .
