Plants need light to live and grow, and it takes a lot of energy to grow plants using man-made light fixtures. So why don’t we use sunlight instead? Why don’t we use sunlight to grow plants on the International Space Station (ISS)? Engineering challenges Windows take a lot of time, effort, and money to design …
February 19th 2021 marked the 4 year anniversary of astrobotany.com. Hi all, I am incredibly humbled that astrobotany.com has been up and running for four years. I am in awe, and extremely proud of how much knowledge the site has accumulated in its short time on the internet. Four years ago, this website was little …
Clovers in Space: ExoLab-8 Mission ExoLab-8 Mission The next Cygnus launch aboard the Antares rocket is scheduled for February 20, 2021 at 12:36 p.m. ET, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad 0A on Wallops Island, Virginia. This resupply mission, known as Cygnus NG-15, will deliver approximately 3,279 kg of cargo to the International Space …
Parabolic flights (often called “vomit comet” flights) provide an analog platform for microgravity research. Essentially, a reduced-gravity aircraft flies upward, then it curves like a parabola and flies downward so fast that the people and equipment inside experience microgravity for less than 30 seconds. This brief period of weightlessness allows researchers time to do experiments, …
