Can you grow plants in space?Like on a Space Station?

Question

Does the Extra Radiation up there affect the Growth of the Plant?
I heard some chinese people took grape seeds with them into space and returned them to grow on earth and they ended up bigger than normal ones!!!

Answer 1

A good question. On long space missions and in space colonies we'll need to grow our own food hydroponically. The answer is yes you can. The extra radiation is a serious problem for people and animals but less so for plants. Microgravity doesn't affect plant growth too much, and there are ways to deal with it. As you point out, experiments on plants in space have been encouraging. On the planned manned Mars mission, most of the crew's food supply will be vegetables and algae grown in space hydroponically.

Answer 2

Yes and in the for a long voyage it would be a good way of producing oxygen as well as food. Humans breathe in oxygen to to oxidise food and exhale CO2 (carbon dioxide) plants absorb carbon dioxide and light (mostly in blue and red wavelengths) and produce carbohydrates. The waste products in human urine and feces contain all the nutrients the plants need. So effectively you have a complete cycle with just light needed for energy. Short wave ultraviolet can damage some plants but is easy to filter out. Gamma bursts and high infrared would kill the plants but it would kill the humans too so it would not matter.

Answer 3

Assuming you still have sunlight (essential for photosynthesis), air, water, and some minerals, the plants will grow. I would imagine some plants would be affected more than others by the increased radiation.

Answer 4

Yes, they have grown many plants on the space station..

Answer 5

yes bru