After decades of experiments, precisely the last experiment in Mir proved that it is possible to grow wheat throughout its life cycle in zero gravity. Now the experiment is being replicated to the Alpha space station
Avi Blizovsky
At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, among the other remains of the Russian space station Mir, there are possibly also the remains of the small greenhouse built by Bulgaria, where the first space wheat crop grew. The experiment was launched in 1999 at a time when growing food in space, according to scientists, may mark the key to the food supply on Earth.
The scientists behind the project believe that what NASA calls astroculture may increase wheat yields and increase disease resistance. It will also enable the use of wheat for other needs, not food, in every aspect of human life and enable the realization of the vision of human colonization on other planets.
We marked a landmark in history, and proved for the first time that an organism can reproduce and develop normally throughout its life cycle in weightlessness," said Prof. Tanya Ivanova, Ivanova, director of the Hama project.
The first 508 seeds of the space wheat arrived in Mir at the beginning of 1999, says Ivanova, who is the head of the department of biohernology at the space research institute of the Bulgarian government. The seeds were sown again and later that year produced a second hollow crop, twice the size of the first. Growing wheat in space is not a new idea. The demand for growing wheat in the space of Yamia Chemi Research began itself. Scientists tried to grow seeds in the lunar soil brought to Earth during the Apollo program, and starting in 1975 every Russian spacecraft took off with a plant growing medium.
In any case, the lack of gravity affected the ability of plants to take roots down, light conditions and the composition of gases in the atmosphere hindered growth and the absence of insects in space hindered reproduction, says Dr. Jay Skiles, an ecologist in the Department of Ecosystems at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. Despite some limited success with some inedible plants, the Russians did not succeed until they hired the Bulgarians in the XNUMXs to build the one-cubic-meter greenhouse known as Swet (light) for marriages aboard the Mir, and only then did the first experiments in growing food begin.
In the early 40s, the cosmonauts managed to grow lettuce and beets under the aluminum roof of the greenhouse in the area of 1995 square centimeters. In XNUMX, the American-Russian joint team tried to grow wheat and the experiment paid off four years later.
NASA and the heads of the Russian space program hoped that growing wheat in space throughout the life cycle would help with long manned flights like the one planned to Mars. "You cannot take the food you will need for 16 months in space in a reasonable-sized spacecraft." Skiles said. The Bulgarian experiment was destroyed after 700 days after the spacecraft was destroyed and crashed into the Pacific Ocean at the end of 15 years of operation. "Mir's death is not the end, it is only the beginning" says Ivanova. And this time it is not intended to feed astronauts but to solve our problems on Earth."
In May of this year, NASA launched an advanced commercial plant-growing project in space to the International Space Station Alpha, to allow industries to conduct long-term plant-growing experiments in space. The project will explore the benefits of using microgravity to create on-demand wheat that is able to withstand hostile climates, resist disease, and requires a smaller growing area.
NASA says that the process of using bacteria to transfer desired genes, such as those that confer stronger resistance to plants, work better in microgravity. The research arm of Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, known as Embrapa, and Brazilian satellite manufacturer Brazasat hired Ivanova and her team last year to create a plant-growing facility for the Alpha space station.
With the progress of the construction of the space station, a new period of experiments and research possibilities of growing plants in microgravity is dawning." Brazest CEO Joao Vaz said, "The results so far have shown that in space it is possible to carry out effective research in growing plants."
In the experiments, the Brazilians hope to learn how to expand the cultivation and increase the resistance against diseases on the ground. An increase in productivity even by a percent or two can be a leap forward in trying to solve problems in feeding the world's growing population," says Ivanova.
The Brazilians are sure that the experiments in space can be valuable for developing new uses of wheat in agriculture, medicine and industry. Plant starch is found in industrial products and as absorbents in medical products. Wheat, sugar, date oil and oilseeds are being researched as oil substitutes. The wheat is also used as a means of introducing vaccines to animals that are given in the feed.
