Our Space Seed Experiment

Last week Wendy registered to take part in a seed experiment where seeds will be grown in outer space and also on earth. The seeds have been taken to the International Space Station.

THE SPACE EXPERIMENT

The Azuki bean will be grown IN COMPLETE DARKNESS and WEIGHTLESSNESS from seed for 7 days onboard “Kibo" inside the International Space Station.

Astronauts will film the sprouting of Azuki beans grown in space and transmit the images to Earth.

• Azuki beans, Vigna angularis cv. Erimowase, are implanted into a rockwool block under dry conditions and sent to ISS.
• Once in orbit, the rockwool is wetted with water so that the beans will start germinate. The seeds are put inside an opaque bag and kept inside the Kibo module.
• Seven days (TBD) later, the bag is opened and the growth and the shape of seedlings are observed. Video images are taken and downlinked.
• Downlinked video images are distributed to participating students.
• If extra crew operations are possible, astronauts can pick some sprouts out and touch them to examine its stiffness and other physical properties, i.e. gravity resistance.

Our seeds arrived on Friday and yesterday we set up our seed experiment. 

On Friday we need to do our first check of our seeds.  If you want to find out about the space seeds click on the image below.