Miami University botany professor John Kiss with seed cassette experimental containers. (Image courtesy of Miami University)



Humans can even aspire to grow crops and manage a garden in space! Can we grow food in microgravity? To satiate this intrusiveness, the space shuttle Discovery scheduled to launch July 1, will carry the research of Miami University professor John Kiss.



NASA awarded Kiss more than $1 million over the past six years for an experiment for studying how plant roots respond to varying levels of both light and gravity - named ‘Tropi, Analysis of a Novel Sensory Mechanism in Root Phototropism’. Kiss is a professor of botany.



Performing the experiment on the International Space Station, the insights it will provide, can help create sustainable plant-based life support systems for long-term space missions. As part of NASA’s exploration agenda, this ‘Tropi’ will provide as a food source and as oxygen producers on long-range trips to Mars.



Via: Science Daily