How Sensitive Are Plants To Gravity?

April 22, 2014

Image Caption: Space greenhouse. Credit: NASA

ESA

It is a race against time for ESAs Gravi-2 experiment following launch last Friday on the Dragon space ferry. Stowed in Dragons cargo are lentil seeds that will be nurtured into life on the International Space Station.

Gravi-2 continues the research of its predecessor into how sensitive plants are to gravity.

To find out, 768 lentil seeds will be subjected to different levels of simulated gravity. Spinning them in centrifuges at different speeds on the Space Station will recreate gravity, similar to how astronauts and fighter pilots are subjected to high-forces in human centrifuges.

The goal is to see at what gravity level the seedlings begin to show growth differences. Kept spinning for 30 hours at four different centrifuge speeds, the seedlings will be observed as they grow.

Anyone with plants at home knows that keeping a plant happy requires the right environment. The lentils need to survive a launch and grow in microgravity before they are chemically fixed to undergo detailed lab analysis on their return to researchers on the ground.

Dragons launch was expected a few weeks earlier and Gravi-2 researchers had to check that the lentils would survive the extra waiting time before launch. After testing, the lentil seeds were declared still fit to fly.

Once aboard, the plants will be grown in ESAs space greenhouse and time-lapse photography will show how the roots curve towards the downwards force.

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How Sensitive Are Plants To Gravity?