ISS Increment 2, 6A to 7A:

Seed-to-Seed Development of Arabidopsis thaliana in Microgravity

RELATED LINKS NASA Information on Increment 2 Advanced Astroculture Flight Unit

The space station payload Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC) made its debut flight during the second International Space Station Increment. For this mission, WCSAR teamed up with Space Explorers Inc. to study the effects of microgravity on the seed-to-seed development of Arabidopsis thaliana.

The dry Arabidopsis thaliana plants upon their return to Earth.

At the same time, this experiment was used as a basis for an educational activity under the name of Orbital Laboratory. Hundreds of K-12 schools nationwide have been able to participate, running ground experiments and helping WCSAR gather data needed to grow the plants in space.

Post-mission analysis data shows that about 90% of seeds germinated in space; about 70% of seeds grew to produce siliques which contained mature seeds; an average of 24 siliques per plant were produced, each one containing an average of 36 seeds; plants were healthy and growing normally.

STS-50 - STS-57 - STS-60 - STS-63 - STS-73 - STS-95 - STS-101 - STS-107  /  STS-89/91 - Inc 2 - Inc 4 - Inc 5