ASGSB 1999 Annual Meeting Abstracts

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF PROTOCOLS FOR TWO MICROGRAVITY-RATED PLANT NUTRIENT DELIVERY SYSTEMS. K. Louie¹ and H.G. Levine². ¹Department of Microbiology, University of California at Davis, Davis CA. ²Gravitational Biology Laboratory, Dynamac Corp., Kennedy Space Center, FL

The Advanced Life Support Program seeks to utilize plants to recycle air, water, wastes, provide food and contribute to the psychological well being of the crew during prolonged space flight missions. Unfortunately, among those investigators who have grown plants in space, none to our knowledge would claim to have achieved optimal conditions for plant growth. We believe that the provision of adequate levels of water (without causing water logging) and oxygen to the root zone are the most crucial components holding back major advancements in this area. There are currently two primary candidate nutrient delivery systems being considered for microgravity-based plant culture: (1) the porous tube nutrient delivery system, and (2) substrate-based nutrient delivery systems. As part of the Microgravity Plant Nutrient Experiment (MPNE-02) space flight experiment, it is currently envisioned that both of these options will be flown in a side-by-side comparison within BioServe's double mid-deck ASTRO PGBA carrier. Three different moisture levels will be provided to each option. We report here on preliminary efforts at developing protocols for seed planting and germination within both of these nutrient delivery systems. Based upon results from capillary wicking studies, several candidate materials were selected and incorporated into newly designed seed cassette holders. Seeds were attached to the wicking materials using guar glue and the entire unit fastened around the porous tubes using Velcro*. The developed protocols were tested using two strains of wheat (Triticum aestivum): (1)Yecora rojo and (2) Apogee. Tests were also conducted evaluating the use of substrate-inserted moisture sensors for the provision of feedback control to the water input control mechanism. 

This work was supported by NASA's Space Life Science Training Program and contract NAS4-100 to the Dynamac Corporation.

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