Does the first flower just now was born in space? – Publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
 

The phrase

Context

After the astronauts have done to grow lettuce in the growth chamber Veggie the International Space Station (ISS, its acronym in English), which ended up in the stomach of some astronauts in August 2015, the following draft space gardening was the zinnias growing, family plants sunflowers and marigolds, which give highly prized flowers in the gardens. But it was a difficult process: there was a lack of ventilation of the oven and excess water, the withered leaves, appeared mold, then there was lack of water due to excessive ventilation and everything seemed to be lost. Died two of the four zinnias.

Scott Kelly, commander of the current mission of the ISS, ended up at the helm of gardening (replacing another astronaut who ended his stay on the space station) and was tweeting on the evolution of zinnias. Last Saturday, after one of the plants have flowered, astronaut wrote on Twitter: “First Bloom ever to grow in space makes its debut.” On Monday, news in several newspapers gave the case as unprecedented. The British newspaper Independent wrote: “A plant bloomed for the first time in space in zero gravity.” Information that ignores decades of space experiments with plants

Facts <. /> strong>

Despite the enthusiasm, this is not a first. The first plants flowered in space for over 30 years. “In 1982, the crew of the space station Saliut-7 belonging to the Soviet Union, cultivated on board some” Arabidopsis “[the plant with flower used in scientific research]. During his 40-day life cycle, they became the first flowering plants produce seeds in space in zero gravity, “recalls the site official Guinness.

Attempting to grow plants in space was already the previous decade, and continued in subsequent years. In the Russian station Mir, between 1996 and 1997 were cultivated wheat, resulting in flowers and seeds. Since the beginning of the ISS life was research into plants. In his blog, the US astronaut Donald Pettit showed in 2012 photographs of a sunflower blossom during his mission on the ISS.

This long tradition of cultivation, in addition to a scientific goal of understanding the behavior plants in space, it is important to humanity want to travel in space for long periods of time and want to colonize elsewhere in the universe. Plants are an essential food source, as well as provide a service to the well-being of crews in an isolated environment. The choice of zinnias to cultivate is not random. According to NASA, learn how to grow them is a stepping-stone to be able to grow tomatoes, one that zinnias and tomato have a longer period of growth and they need to flourish.

In summary

The ISS commander of the phrase is so misleading. There is a long history of cultivation of plants in space and flowering plants. But enthusiasm is understandable, especially after Scott Kelly have seen almost all “his plans” to die. In this process, the astronaut inaugurated a new phase in gardening ISS. Until then, there was an automatic control of irrigation plant in Veggie , but the needs of zinnias forced him to take the helm of gardening. The captain received the team on Earth Veggie The zinnias of Care Guide for Gardeners in Orbit in a page. On Twitter, the astronaut even made a snap to the character of Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon in the film The Martian , the botanical astronaut who ends up alone on Mars and try to survive investing in agriculture. “Our plants do not seem very well. This would be a problem on Mars. I’ll have to tune my Mark Watney inside, “he wrote on 27 December 2015. And got it … just was not the first.