{"id":18515,"date":"2018-05-20T01:16:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T17:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/small-seeds-on-cygnus-cargo-ship-could-lead-to-giant-leap-for-farming-in-space\/"},"modified":"2018-05-20T01:16:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T17:16:57","slug":"small-seeds-on-cygnus-cargo-ship-could-lead-to-giant-leap-for-farming-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/small-seeds-on-cygnus-cargo-ship-could-lead-to-giant-leap-for-farming-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Small seeds on Cygnus cargo ship could lead to giant leap for farming in space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Plant
Plants grow in a prototype of the habitat that will be used on the International Space Station to study which strains of crops do best in a weightless environment. (Washington State University Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Orbital ATK\u2019s Antares rocket launches a robotic Cygnus cargo spaceship toward the International Space Station, as early as Monday, it\u2019ll be sending seeds that could show the way for future space farmers.<\/p>\n

The Antares liftoff is currently set for 4:39 a.m. ET (1:39 a.m. PT) on Monday from NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, with an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather. NASA\u2019s live-streaming coverage of the countdown begins at 1 a.m. PT Monday.<\/p>\n

More than 7,200 pounds of supplies, equipment and experiments will be packed aboard the Cygnus. One of the smallest payloads consists of seeds for the Final Frontier Plant Habitat \u2014 part of a $2.3 million, NASA-funded initiative that involves researchers from Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico and Los Alamos National Laboratory.<\/p>\n

The automated habitat was delivered during previous cargo resupply missions and set up for planting. Once the Cygnus\u2019 cargo arrives, astronauts can proceed with the habitat\u2019s first official science experiment, which is aimed at determining which genetic variants of plants grow best under weightless conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall significance is what it could mean for space exploration,\u201d WSU biochemist Norman Lewis, the project\u2019s leader, said in a news release. \u201cWhether it\u2019s colonizing planets, establishing a station or for long-range space travel, it\u2019s going to require maintaining air and food for artificially supported environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experiment builds on decades\u2019 worth of previous plant-growing efforts in space \u2014 including the Veggie experiment, which yielded space-grown lettuce for the space station crew. (\u201cTastes good \u2026 kinda like arugula,\u201d NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said.)<\/p>\n

This time, the astronauts will plant six different types of Arabidopsis, a flowering plant that\u2019s closely related to cabbage and mustard. Five of the plant varieties have been genetically altered, either to affect they way the plants capture carbon or affect their ability to produce lignin, a fibrous substance that provides structural support for plants. The same varieties will be grown under Earth-gravity conditions at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n

After several weeks of growth, the zero-G plants will be harvested and shipped back to Earth for comparison. The plants\u2019 proteins will be analyzed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to see whether a particular genetic mix is better-suited for cultivation in space.<\/p>\n