Experiments en route to the International Space Station focus on general topics such as soil, but could be key to growing crops in space.
Experiments funded by NASA – known as The dynamics of the microbiome in spaceor DynaMoS – carried out by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. DynaMoS uses soil and bacteria collected at the Washington State University field site in Prosser, Washington.
“Soil microbes are hidden players in the planet’s life support systems,” PNNL chief scientist Janet Janson, principal investigator for the DynaMoS experiment, explained during a pre-launch press conference. Bacteria break down organic matter and make nutrients available for plant growth.
Space missions could expand the reach of microbes beyond our planet.
“Soil microbes can help create conditions on the Moon and Mars that are more conducive to plant growth,” Jansson said. “They could also be used to help grow crops on the space station and during long-distance space flights.”
To find out how the space environment affects the work done by soil microbes, scientists packed 52 soil test tubes containing eight types of bacteria inside. SpaceX Dragon robot cargo capsule It is related to the space station. Another 52 tubes were kept in the laboratory for comparison.
The cargo was originally scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in June. But this attempt was aborted when the engineers discovered High hydrazine fuel readings While the dragon was eating.
On the other hand, today’s launch went smoothly. Minutes after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off, the self-propelled first stage landed aboard the unmanned ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, while the Dragon continued its robotic journey into orbit.
Schedule invites Dragon to meet the space station on Saturday 5,800 pounds of supplies and experiments – Includes DynaMoS.
The PNNL researchers plan to monitor how efficiently the bacteria in soil samples break down a substance known as chitin, which is found in the exoskeleton of insects and the cell walls of fungi. Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide in the world, after cellulose, and serves as a common food source for microbes.
When microbes consume chitin, they produce nutrients for other organisms in the soil. Measuring how well microbes ingest chitin should tell scientists how the carbon cycle in space could be affected by factors including zero gravity, exposure to space radiation and changes in carbon dioxide levels, Jansson said.
“We wanted to have something that required an interactive community to take down,” Janson told GeekWire. “Chitin is a complex polymer, and therefore it is difficult for one organism to decompose on its own.”
Each set of test tubes will be sampled at four different times for 12 weeks. And when space samples are brought back from orbit, they will be compared with laboratory samples left on Earth.
“We did some initial testing just to see who might play well with whom,” Jansson said. “Our hypothesis is that in the space environment, these interactions may change due to space conditions. For example, in microgravity, it may be difficult for these different species to find each other.”
Experimental results can guide scientists as they work on recipes for making soil suitable for growing crops on a spacecraft, on the Moon or on Mars. Who do you know? The mix of bacteria from eastern Washington state might get better Potato plants on the red planet.
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