page_title: Astrobotany
section_title: Experiments
hierarchical_section_title: Astrobotany / Experiments
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts. Fresh food, such as vegetables, provide essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable sustainable deep space pioneering.
context_page_description: Astrobotany is an applied sub-discipline of botany that is the study of plants in space environments. It is a branch of astrobiology and botany.
  It has been a subject of study that plants may be grown in outer space typically in a weightless but pressurized controlled environment in specific space gardens. In the context of human spaceflight, they can be consumed as food and/or provide a refreshing atmosphere. Plants can metabolize carbon dioxide in the air to produce valuable oxygen, and can help control cabin humidity. Growing plants in space may provide a psychological benefit to human spaceflight crews.
  The first challenge in growing plants in space is how to get plants to grow without gravity. This runs into difficulties regarding the effects of gravity on root development, providing appropriate types of lighting, and other challenges. In particular, the nutrient supply to root as well as the nutrient biogeochemical cycles, and the microbiological interactions in soil-based substrates are particularly complex, but have been shown to make possible space farming in hypo- and micro-gravity.
context_section_description: Some experiments to do with plants include:
  Bion satellites
  Biomass Production System, aboard ISS
  Vegetable Production System (Veggie), aboard ISS.
  SVET
  SVET-2, aboard Mir.
  ADVASC
  TAGES, aboard ISS.
  Plant Growth/Plant Phototropism, aboard Skylab
  Oasis plant growth unit
  Plant Signaling (STS-135)
  Plant growth experiment (STS-95)
  NASA Clean Air Study
  ECOSTRESS, 2018
caption: Illustration of plants growing in a hypothetical Mars base.
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