NASA's Plant Growth Technologies and Research Webinar

The Space Crop Production Lab at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is a plant processing area - a web of ground research laboratories equipped with plant growth chambers of all sizes and the ability to simulate the International Space Station environment. That along with a team of researchers capable of applying the chemistry, biology, microbiology, and engineering needed to make plants grow in space, makes NASA a one of a kind hub for fulfilling space biology and growing crops in space.

This NASA webinar features researcher Jacob Torres, who discusses the latest food production research and technologies developed at NASA.  This includes a Passive Porous Plant Nutrient System that requires no electricity or moving parts, and a variety of micro-gravity simulation testing systems for plant growth. Also included are some video clips of Jacob inside the lab exhibiting some of his technologies and ongoing research projects.

We also explain how NASA’s technologies and capabilities are available to industry and other organizations through NASA’s Technology Transfer Program. Also, we will introduce a potential opportunity through NASA’s Centennial Challenges program. Currently, NASA is exploring the possibility of opening a challenge for plant and food production for long duration space exploration missions. Teams will compete to win prize money by developing and demonstrating novel technologies, systems or approaches that meet the goals of the challenge.

“Before astronauts took that first historic bite of lettuce in space, every piece of equipment involved in growing that lettuce was meticulously tested in the Space Crop Production Lab and other labs at NASA.  NASA continues to research methods to improve plant growth and plant nutrition in space.”  -Jacob Torres