Hello, Gardeners of the Galaxy! It’s time for a new episode, and our Mission Specialist for this one is Patrick Grubbs, who recently completed a Professional Science Master’s degree in Controlled Environment Agriculture at the University of Arizona. Patrick is one of the people behind the Space Ecology Workshop, an annual virtual symposium on bioregenerative life support, space agriculture, closed ecological systems, and more. He also co-founded The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon, an international non-profit research organization developing closed ecological life support technology and working to democratize space access in underrepresented countries. The Spring Institute is working on some really exciting astrobotany projects, and Patrick is here to tell us about… some of them!
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02:59 Patrick explains how he became interested in space plants.
04:22 How did the Space Ecology Workshop come about?
06:26 What is The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon?
07:38 The Spring Institute is sending an aquarium to the ISS, in the SCAMPI Project.
10:01 Education and outreach are also an important part of the Spring Institute’s activities.
10:41 PLANT-B, a terrarium in a CubeSat.
17:48 Lunar Regolith Bioremediation experiment.
18:21 Primary ecological succession in lunar regolith.
20:35 Terrascape, a potential citizen science terrarium experiment.
23:35 Does Patrick want to go to space?
24:24 What’s Patrick’s fantasy space plant?
Hello, and welcome to Gardeners of the Galaxy, the podcast for all of the sentient beings in the Universe who have a passion for plants. I’m Emma the Space Gardener, and I will be your host as we
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