Space Tomatoes and Eu:CROPIS (GotG49)

In 2018, the German Space Agency launched a particularly ambitious project on a year-long space mission – a satellite equipped with two greenhouses designed to grow tiny tomatoes at gravity levels equivalent to those found on the Moon and Mars. But it was more than just an experiment to grow plants in space. In this episode, Emma the Space Gardener explores Eu:CROPIS, a project to develop a biological life-support system… for tomatoes.

00:11 Since the dawn of the Space Age, humans have been going where no one has gone before. But what exactly happens to astronaut pee? Why aren’t we using it as fertiliser for a biological life support system?

03:54 The Eu:CROPIS mission, and the other three experiments onboard the German satellite (SCORE, RAMIS and PowerCell.

07:12 The flagship Eu:CROPIS experiment – a life support system for tomatoes.

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Hello, and welcome to episode 49 of 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 explore gardening on Earth… and beyond.

When Alan Shepard became the first American in space in May 1961, he launched in a wet spacesuit. With his trip scheduled to last around 15 minutes, NASA had made no provisions for him to relieve himself. However, after more than four hours sitting on the launchpad, Shepard had to go. As getting out of his seat would have caused more delays, Mission Control gave him permission to pee in his suit. When he did so, the liquid shorted out his biomonitors.

It seems as though the space agency could have learned something from kindergarten students,