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August
16, 2007: You'll never guess what was in Barbara
Morgan's pocket when she blasted off from Kennedy Space Center
last week onboard space shuttle Endeavour.
 The
teacher-turned-astronaut carried millions of basil seeds into
orbit and onto the International Space Station. Basil ...
in space? Well, you never know when the ISS might run into
some bland spaghetti sauce.
Right:
Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is a popular herb for seasoning
and cooking. [More]
Seriously,
basil in space is cutting-edge research. Astronauts on future
missions to the Moon and beyond are going to want to take
plants along for the ride--for food, oxygen and even companionship.
It's important for NASA to learn how seeds endure space conditions
and germinate in low gravity.
In
this case, it's not only NASA doing the learning; kids will
be too.
Some
of the basil seeds will remain on the station to be grown in
low gravity. The rest will be returned to Earth and divided
into kits for students to study. They'll measure seed germination
rates--how fast space basil grows compared to Earth basil--and
also learn more about the scientific method. Teachers, click
here for information on how to participate.
Morgan's
seeds (not really carried in her pocket, but you get the idea)
are joining three million other basil seeds that have been
flying on the station for a year and are waiting for Morgan
to bring them back to Earth.
Most
of the "veteran" seeds have actually spent time
outside the ISS exposed to breathtaking vacuum, harsh radiation
and anything else space can throw at them. They "hung
out" in suitcase-sized test beds known as MISSE 3 and
4, short for Materials on the International Space Station
Experiment 3 and 4. MISSE is managed by NASA's Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia; William Kinard is the principal
investigator.
Above:
The Materials on the International Space Station Experiment-3,
or MISSE 3, was attached to the outside of the space station
in August 2006. The suitcase-sized container is filled with
hundreds of materials, including basil seeds, to study how
each is affected by the space environment. [More]
To
get the seeds to classrooms, NASA works with the George W.
Park Seed Company in Greenwood, S.C. The company began its
relationship with NASA in the 1980s with the SEEDS (Space
Exposed Experiment Developed for Students) program. During
that experiment, more than 12 million tomato seeds flew on
the Long Duration Exposure Facility – a satellite deployed
in 1984 by space shuttle Challenger to provide long-term data
on the space environment and its effects on space systems
and operations.
"I
think the kids will be excited to work with something that's
been in space. And to know, for this experiment, there are
no answers in the back of a book," says Miria Finckenor,
an engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala., and one of the MISSE investigators.
"We
hope to get more students interested in science and reach
as many as we did with the tomato seeds experiment,"
she says. More than 40,000 classrooms in all 50 states and
30 foreign countries participated in that program.
For
more information on participating in growing seeds from space,
visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/plantgrowth/home/index.html
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Authors: Lori Meggs, Tony Phillips | Editor:
Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
| More
Information |
| In
addition to the educational benefits, the Materials
on the International Space Station Experiments,
managed by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton,
Va., are contributing a wealth of data on spacecraft
materials back to the International Space Station Program,
NASA's Constellation Program and a number of defense
programs.
The
first two external materials science experiments on
the space station flew from 2001 to 2005, and another
flew on the station a year later. Upon their return
to Earth, the samples were examined by principal investigator
William Kinard at Langley, Finckenor and many other
researchers involved in the project. One of the most
significant results from these test beds is confirmation
that the contamination control for the station – the
method for tracking whether scientific instruments,
windows, radiators and other hardware is staying clean
from contaminants such as dust, dirt, or hair – is working.
The
experiments showed that samples of the glass used in
station windows were better than 90 percent clear, and
samples of the same white thermal coatings used on station
radiators looked like new, even after four years in
space. "We want to keep the windows clean so the
astronauts can not only look outside but are also able
to snap good photographs of Earth," Finckenor says.
"We also want to keep the thermal coatings white
so that the thermal control system – which includes
the radiators that keep the station and its crew at
comfortable temperature – works properly."
The
sixth materials experiment, or MISSE-6, will fly to
the station on board STS-123, scheduled for launch in
early 2008. It will carry 140 samples from the Marshall
Center, including materials such as the heatshield,
radiation shielding and data matrix identification markers
for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. That vehicle
is capable of carrying up to six astronauts to low Earth
orbit atop the in-line, two-stage rocket, Ares I crew
launch vehicle.
Web
links:
Greenhouses
for Mars --When humans go to the moon or Mars, they'll
probably take plants with them. NASA-supported researchers
are learning how greenhouses might work on other planets.
Leafy
Green Astronauts -- (Science@NASA) NASA scientists
are learning how to grow plants in space. Such crops
will eventually take their place alongside people, microbes
and machines in self-contained habitats for astronauts.
Green
Generations -- (Science@NASA) It looks like an ordinary
pea pod. And it is. That's what so amazing ... because
this pod lives in space.
The
Physics of Space Gardens -- (Science@NASA) It could
only happen in space: A tiny bubble of air hangs suspended
inside a droplet of water. The droplet rests in the
cup of a delicate green leaf, yet the stalk doesn't
bend at all.
Igniting
the Flame of Knowledge -- STS-118 Educational Resources
NASA's
Future: The
Vision for Space Exploration
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