Space Shuttle returns first soybeans grown on Space Station in commercial farming experiment
Like farmers across the nation bringing in their crops this season,
researchers in Wisconsin are carefully taking stock of a very special
harvest – one grown aboard the International Space Station.
They’ve measured and weighed plants, counted seeds, and collected additional
physical information from the first-ever soybean crop grown aboard the
orbiting research laboratory.
Now, the research team will begin several months of chemical and biological
tests on the plants that will reveal whether microgravity – the low-gravity
environment inside the Space Station — has changed the chemical make-up of
the seeds.
Soybeans — a leading source of protein in the human diet — are used in a
wide variety of products, from oil to crayons. Finding improved varieties
could have a significant economic impact on a soybean business worth
billions of dollars each year.
“We want to examine the seeds produced by plants grown on the Station to see
if they have any unique, desirable traits,” said Dr. Tom Corbin, a research
scientist for Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a DuPont subsidiary with
headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, and the industrial sponsor for the
experiment. “If we find changes, then we want to know if the positive
traits can be inherited genetically by future generations of plants for the
benefit of farmers and consumers.”
Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the orbiting laboratory this month during
the STS-112 mission to deliver new experiment equipment and other supplies
and return with the soybean plants and other completed experiments.
Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the orbiting laboratory this month
during the STS-112 mission to deliver new experiment equipment and other
supplies and return with the soybean plants and other completed experiments.
“This experiment and others are paving the way for improving crops grown on
Earth, as well as potentially feeding people living in space,” said Mark
Nall, director of NASA’s Space Product Development Program at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The program has helped companies fly
several experiments on the Station by working with one of NASA’s 15
Commercial Space Centers located across America.
“The Space Station is giving companies a chance to grow plants that require
several months to mature,” said Nall.
NASA International Space Station Science Officer Peggy Whitson took care of
the soybeans on the Station since the experiment began in June. In one of
her e-mail letters to family and friends this summer, she reported, “The
beans looked mature and the leaves are turning brown.”
The plants and seed pods were turning brown because scientists wanted them
to dry out and be preserved for tests on Earth.
It turned out to be a very good crop.
“The first soybean crop grown in space returned in excellent condition, and
a total of 83 seeds were harvested from 42 seed pods,” said Dr. Weijia Zhou,
director of the Wisconsin Space Center for Automation and Robotics at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Since a plant’s habitat plays a key role
in determining the physiological and biological characteristics of the
plant, we believe that reduced gravity may affect plant chemistry.”
The Wisconsin center is a NASA Commercial Space Center, and was responsible
for building the Advanced Astroculture* plant growth chamber where the
soybeans germinated and grew for 97 days.
“We will analyze the oil, proteins, carbohydrates and secondary metabolites
in the seeds produced in space,” noted Corbin, whose company is the largest
seed company in the world. “We will continue analysis of the soybeans at
Pioneer’s laboratory in Johnston, Iowa, and we anticipate having results in
two to three months.”
NASA is interested in the technologies that enable production of
commercially important crops like soybeans in space because these
technologies will be needed to produce vegetable crops that support a
long-term human presence in space.
Can new varieties of crops be produced using seeds produced by space-grown
plants? Do these space plants produce seeds with higher oil content or
improved nutritional value? Can elite seeds be produced that will improve
farmers’ crop yields and the quality of plants products used in consumer
products?
Zhou and Corbin hope to begin answering these questions by analyzing the
space-grown plants and seeds. On Earth, the development of naturally bred
crop seeds is time consuming, usually taking several years. If this process
can be accelerated with space-grown, plants, it would make the Station an
attractive research laboratory for industry to use in crop development.
“As a science company, DuPont knows that future research opportunities may
come from totally different venues and needs as we look ahead,” said Dr.
Thomas M. Connelly, DuPont’s chief science and technology officer. “The
discovery process often requires exploring in unprecedented avenues to
unleash the next wave of innovation, and we are committed to discovering new
and meaningful innovation wherever it is.”
Growing plants in space could provide salads for future space crews, but
they also may bring other psychological and biological benefits. When she
first saw the growing soybeans, Whitson, an Iowa native, reported in an
e-mail letter home to family and friends, “It was surprising to me how great
soybean plants looked. I guess seeing something green for the first time in
a month and a half had a real effect. I think it’s interesting that the
reaction was as dramatic as it was…guess if we go to Mars, we need a
garden!”
Over the next few months, Whitson will continue her gardening duties,
tending a crop of mustard plants that will soon be growing inside the Plant
Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus — designed and built by BioServe Space
Technologies, a NASA Commercial Space Center at the University of Colorado,
Boulder. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory,
Madison, Wis., and the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.,
which also has grown plants on the Station, and a consortium of industries,
are partners on the experiment.
“This is the first in a series of Space Station plant experiments that will
study the role of gravity in producing lignin, a substance that affects the
strength of plant stalks and stems,” said Louis Stodieck, director of
BioServe Space Technologies. “Identifying the genes that control lignin
production in plants has broad applications in the timber and pharmaceutical
industries.”
Plants need lignin for strength to stand upright under the force of Earth’s
gravity. But this chemical must be removed to produce paper — a costly
process that results in pollution. Reducing the lignin content of plants
could make it less expensive to produce paper and reduce pollution.
Another significant benefit of growing plants in space is the educational
benefit. Space Explorers, Inc., a commercial firm in Green Bay, Wis.,
produces Internet-based, space education programs. The company used data
from the ADVANCED ASTROCULTURE* experiments to create the “Orbital
Laboratory” educational software program. It allows students to design,
conduct and analyze plant experiments on the Space Station.
Then they can compare data through an online student experiment database.
After the experiment is finished on the Space Station, students can use
actual data from the experiment to recreate the experiment in a virtual
environment.
During Expedition Five, students from California to New York grew soybeans
and dwarf wheat plants, similar to those already grown on the Station, under
nine different growing conditions. Via the Internet, they shared their
results and how those results might affect plants grown on long-term space
missions.
This and other Space Product Development experiments are sponsored by the
Office of Biological and Physical Research at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, D.C.
