Name: Levi Bissell
Essay Theme: Cultivating New Technologies
State: Massachusetts
School: Herberg Middle School
Grain Grown in the Galaxy
Fanning in space is a new and growing idea that will change space travel and many aspects of human life. This new agriculture is being developed to affect long-term stays in space, such as moon colonization, make support systems to produce food, and recycle human wastes. This development of growing plants in space will surely not only change space travel, but also, it will alter the ways of life on Earth.
The growth of this innovative farming is a very complex advance in agriculture. NASA is the group from which the idea of plant growth in space has sprung. Several organizations, such as Orbitec and Utah State University, have expanded from NASA's study.
Plants such as dwarf wheat, Apogee, and super dwarf are all wheats that scientists think will grow in space. Super dwarf wheat is the only one of the three to have been tested in space for growing results. The first crop of the super dwarf grown in space grew poorly and produced low yields. Any growing of plants for eating will probably take place on the international space station, which is the location where the super dwarf wheat was grown.
Growing wheat in space is no easy task. Carbon dioxide levels are set; there are also set temperatures, and light must shine all day. There are no spacious fields for the plants to grow in. Not only do the scientists have to adapt the conditions for plant life, but they also must discover a plant that survives in these present conditions that are so different from those on Earth. The plants that are being grown in space are without their roots in soil; the roots are suspended in the air.
Growing wheat in space is being developed for space missions that will involve large crews and/or large amounts of equipment so that food will not add to the weight in a shuttle at lift-off.
In the future, farming in space will greatly affect life. Spacecrafts won't need as much fuel to lift food for astronauts, and eventually, more food will be available to the public because of more farming locations.
Farming in space will impact our lives, farming, and space expeditions very much. With our thirst for knowledge and answers, we have commenced to solve the problem of diminishing farmland and the problem of getting food to astronauts more readily.
References:
<http://asgsb.indstate.edulnewsletter/v14 _3/farm- space.htm1>
<http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/index.htm!>
<http://www.usu.edu/cpl/newsrels.htm!>
This essay was part of a 2003 essay contest sponsored by Council for Agricultural Science & Technology. Click here to see how essays were selected.