Transplanting seedlings in space: GotG16

Emma the Space Gardener is back with a round-up of recent space gardening news. Exciting stuff has been happening on the ISS, where green-fingered space gardener Mike Hopkins has been pricking out seedlings and harvesting crops from Veggie.

Axiom Space and SpaceX have both announced commercial space missions, although it’s unclear whether they will involve plant experiments. In any case, there are obvious concerns about the environmental costs of an increasing number of launches.

A new Mars and Moon analog is being built at the Biosphere 2 site in Arizona, and it’s Black History Month in the USA, so Emma delves into the archive to discover more about Black space gardener Michael P. Anderson.

Further reading

Microgravity Works Wonders With Plant Transplants, NASA, Feb 2021.

First Private Citizens Will Soon Visit Space Station. Is It Climate Friendly? EcoWatch, Jan 2021.Groundbreaking biofuel rocket could be ‘Uber for space’, BBC News, Feb 2021.Can we get to space without damaging the Earth through huge carbon emissions? LA Times, Jan 2020.

Space and Sustainability: How the Lessons of Biosphere 2 Inspired SAM², Universe Today, Jan 2021.

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