The first school experiment to test if plant cuttings can build roots in zero gravity has been sent to the International Space Station (ISS). The trial, designed by Maria Koch, Raphael Schilling and David Geray—three students from an agricultural high school in Ravensburg, Germany—left Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on board the SpaceX rocket that launched yesterday. To date, experiments conducted in zero gravity have only concentrated on the growth behavior of seeds. If cuttings can be used to propagate plants in space, it would be a significant advancement in efforts to supply food for long space missions, such as one to Mars.
“We are hugely excited that we have been able to get our experiment on the ISS,” says Koch. “There hasn’t been any research on the effect of zero-gravity on cuttings before. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
For their experiment, the student research team took 15-millimeter cuttings of climbing fig (ficus pumila), a plant that fulfills two tough space travel requirements: It is small enough to fit the limited space and resistant to the temperature differences of 4 and 28 degrees Celsius (39 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit). Koch, Schilling and Geray carefully planted the cuttings into an agar-based growing medium in a high-tech experiment box named the AFEx Habitat. After the experiment has been conducted in space, a control experiment will also be carried out on Earth under the influence of gravity.
BASF’s crop protection experts have supported the young scientists with research know-how, scientific consultancy, materials and equipment. To develop the experiment design, the students also completed an internship at the BASF Agricultural Center in Limburgerhof, Germany. As the cuttings will undergo extreme differences in temperature and humidity in space, they need to be protected against bacterial or fungal disease, areas in which BASF provided both knowledge and products. BASF fungicides Xemium and Initium will help keep the cuttings healthy during the research on the ISS, as well as on the trip there and back.
“This is the most exciting field trial I have ever been involved in,” says Sebastian Rohrer, early fungicide biologist in BASF’s crop protection division. “Working in research has always been about exploring new ideas, but until now, our tests have never left Earth. BASF’s approach to innovation is based on connecting with others. Working with the students has been a great example of this. Young people like these will be the future of innovation in agriculture.”
Koch, Schilling and Geray, who are now studying agriculture, started their “V3PO Project” in an after-school science club in 2015. The trial will now stay in space for 30 days before returning to Earth for analysis of the results. It is the first school project from Germany to be accepted onto NASA’s education program.
Calling their project “V3PO” (Vegetative Propagation of Plants in Orbit), the three students want to find out if plants can be grown from cuttings in space to provide fresh food during space missions. They attended Edith Stein Agricultural High School in Ravensburg, Germany.