Photos by Jeff Miller. In November, scientists and students will collaborate on an experiment to see how plants grow in space. At the same time, up to 50,000 students will grow identical control plants in their classrooms. The hope is that the experiment's extraterrestrial allure will attract students to the study of biology and other sciences. That's where the upcoming Fast Plants experiment comes in.
Nobody really knows how normally plants grow in the minimal gravity of outer space.
While the Russians have done extensive plant research since the inception of their space program, until this summer no seeds had ever been formed in space. In November, the National Space Agency of Ukraine, NASA, other researchers, and classrooms across the country will collaborate on the space-bound experiment. If the launch goes on schedule, the controls will be the same age as the test plants. But that's just for excitement's sake. The data will be useful anyway.