Growth of Super-Dwarf Wheat on the Russian Space Station MIR 961392
During 1995, we tested instruments and attempted a seed-to-seed experiment with Super-Dwarf wheat in the Russian Space Station Mir. Utah instrumentation included four IR gas analyzers (CO2 and H2O vapor, calculate photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration) and sensors for air and leaf (IR) temperatures, O2, pressure, and substrate moisture (16 probes). Shortly after planting on August 14, three of six fluorescent lamp sets failed; another failed later. Plastic bags, necessary to measure gas exchange, were removed. Hence, gases were measured only in the cabin atmosphere. Other failures led to manual watering, control of lights, and data transmission. The 57 plants were sampled five times plus final harvest at 90 d. Samples and some equipment (including hard drives) were returned to earth on STS-74 (Nov. 20). Plants were disoriented and completely vegetative. Maintaining substrate moisture was challenging, but the moisture probes functioned well.
The experiment is being repeated during 1996 with some new equipment. A second planting will be harvested after 30 d, frozen in the GN2 freezer, and returned in December, 1996.
Citation: Salisbury, F., Bingham, G., Campbell, W., Carman, J. et al., "Growth of Super-Dwarf Wheat on the Russian Space Station MIR," SAE Technical Paper 961392, 1996, https://doi.org/10.4271/961392. Download Citation
Author(s):
Frank B. Salisbury, Gail E. Bingham, William F. Campbell, John G. Carman, Pam Hole, Linda Gillespie, Rubin Nan, Liming Jiang, David Bubenheim, Boris Yendler, Vladimir N. Sytchev, Igor B. Podolsky, Margarita Levinskikh, Lola Chernova, Irene Ivanova
Affiliated:
Utah State University, NASA Ames Research Center, Institute of Biomedical Problems
Pages: 8
Event:
International Conference On Environmental Systems
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Spacecraft
Gases
Pressure
Tools and equipment
Transmissions
Plastics
Water
Sensors and actuators
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