Springtime on the Space Station

Spring is in the air, and plants will soon be sprouting—even on the International Space Station. Last week, crew members installed a new piece of plant growth hardware called the Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS) and filled the modules with water so surface tension behavior could be observed.

PONDS was developed for NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration by Tupperware Brands Corporation and the ISSInternational Space Station National Lab implementation partner Techshot and will be used with the ISS Vegetable Production System, VEGGIE. PONDS, which employs a passive nutrient delivery system, will be used in the cultivation of lettuce and mizuna greens that crew members will harvest and eat in orbit. Samples will also be returned to Earth for analysis.