THE GOAL OF THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF SPACE FLIGHT ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE (PRODUCTIVITY AND TIME TO MATURATION) METABOLISM AND GENETIC CHANGES IN RADISH PLANTS (RAPHANUS SATIVUS). PLANTS WILL BE GROWN IN THE ADVANCED PLANT HABITAT (APH) HARDWARE ON THE ISS AND IN COMPARABLE EXPERIMENTS IN GROUND CONTROLS. THE RESEARCH CONFORMS TO NASA S TOP FUTURE GOAL OF LONG-TERM SPACE EXPLORATION AND TERRAFORMING OTHER PLANETS AND SATELLITES. THESE GOALS DEPEND ON NUTRITIONALLY VALUABLE FOOD CROPS THAT CAN BE RELIABLY GROWN IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS NOT ONLY DEFINED BY ALTERED GRAVITY OR WEIGHTLESS ENVIRONMENT BUT ALSO DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS. IN CONTRAST TO STUDYING DIRECT EFFECTS OF GRAVITY ON PLANTS OUR APPROACH FOCUSES ON SECONDARY DERIVED CONDITIONS SUCH AS ALTERED CONVECTION TRANSPIRATION WATERING CONDITIONS CO2 OTHER GASEOUS COMPONENTS AND LED ILLUMINATION WHICH CREATES A CHARACTERISTIC ENERGY (HEAT AND LIGHT) GRADIENT WITHIN THE GROWTH VOLUME.

University Of Louisiana At Lafayette, Lafayette LA

Investigators