Probing Plant Preferences in Microgravity

The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), a recent addition to the International Space Station, is designed to test different growth conditions to examine plant preferences in microgravityThe condition of perceived weightlessness created when an object is in free fall, for example when an object is in orbital motion. Microgravity alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences, allowing scientists to study things in ways not possible on Earth. The International Space Station provides access to a persistent microgravity environment.. The habitat is about the size of a mini-fridge—the largest plant growth chamber currently onboard the ISS—and provides a larger space for root and shoot growth. It will also allow more types of plants to be grown on the space station.

Another new piece of plant growth hardware called the Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS) launched to the ISSInternational Space Station National Lab on SpaceX CRS-14 and is being tested in space for the first time. PONDS was developed for NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration by Tupperware Brands Corporation and the ISS National Lab implementation partner(Abbreviation: IP) Commercial companies that work with the ISS National Lab to provide services related to payload development, including the translation of ground-based science to a space-based platform. Techshot and will be used with the ISS Vegetable Production System, VEGGIE. PONDS is designed to deliver water and nutrients to plants efficiently in microgravity with very little maintenance from ISS crew members.

The ISS National Lab supports valuable plant investigations, such as the CARA experiment (Characterizing Arabidopsis Root Attractions), that allow researchers to study fundamental plant development processes without the masking effect of gravity.