Extreme Environments
Learn about our Hydroponic Garden within the exhibit
What is Hydroponics?
Hydroponics is the technique of using water to grow plants without any soil or dirt. Nutrients are added to the water in liquid form and are constantly circulating through the system and over the plants.
Why are we growing these plants?
These plants contain similar nutrients and vitamins required for human astronauts on long-term space missions such as iron, magnesium, vitamins A, K, and B-12.
Why is it important to learn how to grow plants in space?
As humans venture into space on long-duration missions, we will want to bring and grow plants. Not only are plants good for our mental well-being, they are also important to keep us healthy by providing essential vitamins in a long-lasting, easily absorbed form — freshly grown fruits and vegetables.
How is growing plants with water better for long-term space missions?
Water is expensive to bring to space, so scientists and engineers use recycling systems on the International Space Station to avoid costly water re-supply launches. On future long-term space missions, recycling water for both humans and plants will help lower costs and increase the chances of success.
What's Growing?
Zinna Seedlings
Planted in Lunar Simulant, Martian Simulant, Asteroid Simulant, and clay pebbles.
Other Plant Varieties
Including Chili Peppers (space-flown!), Watermelon, Bouquet Dill, Purple Basil, Common Zinnia, Sunflower, and Mountain Spinach planted in clay pebbles.
Current Experiment:
Soil Simulant
What are we doing?
This fall, Discovery Center Hydroponic Garden will be testing soil simulant from several different space environments to see how difficult it will be to germinate zinnia seeds. A soil simulant is a material we can use here on Earth that approximates the chemical composition of a Lunar, Martian, or Asteroid soil. We chose zinnia seeds because they are sensitive to different environmental conditions and have a longer growth period than other plants. Zinnias have also been grown on the International Space Station. We planted our seeds on August 15, 2024, and will be tracking and comparing their growth through the end of the year.
Why is this important?
Freshly grown fruits and vegetables help people stay physically and mentally healthy. When humanity ventures out on long term exploration, we will need to use resources found on the Moon or Mars to develop food sources. Learning how plants adapt to stressful growing conditions can also help us grow food here on Earth.
Check back here for progress updates throughout the experiment!
One month update
After a couple of weeks, we discovered a problem - the seeds are thirsty, and our tents are too warm! Turns out, we needed to make some modifications to how our soil simulant samples were set up to make sure the water we introduced to the soil simulants did not evaporate too quickly. Our solution was to affix individual plastic-based caps onto each soil simulant fabric pot and check every 3 days on the water level instead of once a week. Water evaporation would be a problem for scientists trying to grow these plants on the Moon or Mars as well, water in soil would evaporate even faster there than here on Earth. In better news, we were so excited to see our control zinnia seedling bloom! Check back next month for another update!
Two month update
After applying the plastic-based caps to the fabric pot tops, we noticed the added water was still evaporating too quickly. We then added an additional plastic-based cap to the bottom, completely encasing the fabric pot. Our experiment modifications were a success! In less than three days, our asteroid sample and one lunar sample had Zinnia flower seedling sprouts. Over the next week, seedlings sprouted in the second lunar sample and one Mars sample. Seedlings will remain in their fabric pots until they stop growing and will then be transferred into individual larger pots with the same soil simulant sample to continue their growth.
Which sample do you think will bloom first?
