Zinnia flowers are starting to grow in the International Space Station's Veggie facility in Dec. 2015 as part of the VEG-01 investigation. Credit: NASA
Posted on 01/11/2016 7:52:57 PM PST by BenLurkin
Zinnia experimental plants growing aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have staged a dramatic New Year’s comeback from a potential near death experience over the Christmas holidays, when traces of mold were discovered.
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After suffering from a serious case of space blight on the space station, the 'Space Zinnias' growing inside the orbiting outposts Veggie facility are now on the comeback trail from space based trials and tribulations.
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At first the space station Zinnias made great progress, sprouting healthily into larger plants with bigger leaves than those growing on Earth.
"These plants appear larger than their ground-based counterparts and scientists expect buds to form on the larger plants soon," researchers reported in mid-December 2015.
But over the Christmas holidays, Kelly discovered the mold infestation...
After assessing the "sad" situation, Mission Control in Houston asked Kelly to take action by collecting some samples for later analysis on Earth and, more urgently, increasing the Veggie facilities fan speed to cut down on the high humidity that’s likely the "root cause" of the mold infestation.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
LOL Space Blight.
There are some pretty rough neighborhoods on Ceres (I’m really liking “The Expanse” on SYFY)
Feed me Seymore
I have a packet of tomato seeds that flew in space for several years on the LDEF (Long Duration Exposure Facility) satellite. The satellite was launched in 1984 aboard shuttle Challenger and returned to earth in 1990 aboard shuttle Columbia.
You can find packets of these space tomato seeds sometimes for sale on eBay.
The Green Slime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79_ljVC5Wk
Must be David Bowie’s spirit flying by and sprinkling a little stardust.
Those Ceres girls make gangly look sexy.
My first thought
Fascinating article.
Damping off disease caused by too much moisture. Glad they corrected it. Seeds are seeds and plants are plants even as they are here on earth.
God’s plan pretty much works the same everywhere. Good to know. I’m happy about that.
LOL...it’s been years since I watched that.
I wonder if the seeds were planted according to the principles of Lunar Gardening. Were they planted in the right phase of the moon under the best zodiac sign?
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