NASA’s Gioia Massa on growing plants on the International Space Station: GotG10

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! Emma’s guest on this week’s show is Dr Gioia Massa, a Project Scientist at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, working on the Veggie growing system on the International Space Station. Gioia talks about the challenges of growing plants in space, those blooming space zinnias, and when we might see astronauts eating their first space tomato!

In this week’s show I have been lucky enough to speak to NASA’s Dr Gioia Massa about her work with the Veggie growing system on the International Space Station. Gioia explains about the challenges of growing plants in space, and why adding fresh plants to the astronaut diet is so important. She also tells us about the process of selecting crop varieties to grow in Veggie, which involves school children via the Growing Beyond Earth project.

Gioia also tells us why she chose zinnias to bloom on the space station, and when we might see astronauts munching on space-grown peppers and tomatoes. And she picks a fabulous edible as her Fantasy Space Plant.

Hello and welcome to episode ten of Gardeners of the Galaxy, a podcast for all of the sentient beings in the Universe who have a passion for plants. I am Emma the Space Gardener, and I will be your host as we explore gardening on Earth… and beyond!

My guest on this week’s show is Dr Gioia Massa, a Project Scientist at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, working on the Veggie growing system on the International Space Station.  XXX Interview XXX

0:40 Emma: Hi Gioia, thanks for coming on the show today. Gioia: Thank you for having me. I’m glad to be here. Emma: There are lots of gardeners here on Earth who won’t understand why it’s difficult to grow plants in space. Can you explain a