Space Garden

May 12, 2021

Following the successful landing of the Mars Perseverance rover, our imaginations have been captivated by the possibility of interplanetary colonization. But cool your jets, there’s a big, outstanding issue: food. If humans spend long stretches of time in space, they can’t pack all their food before the trip. They’ll have to grow some en route, which is no easy feat.

For some of us gardening on Earth is tricky enough, but in space, crops face the most unusual of conditions like microgravity, radiation, freezing temperatures and a lack of natural light.

With the support of NASA, the lab of MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory scientist Federica Brandizzi has been studying how plants survive in space conditions. In a new study, they start revealing how a plant system—which helps plants manage various types of earthly stresses, such as extreme heat—might function in space.
The survival mechanism is called the unfolded protein response. Putting plants in highly weird situations, such as space, has helped the researchers better understand UPR and the role they may play in protecting plants on Earth.

Learn more: https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2020/learning-what-it-takes-to-grow-a-space-garden