OU plant-gravity experiment now aboard International Space Station

Meyers, a PhD candidate in molecular and cellular biology, had worked for months on getting the experiment ready under the guidance of Sarah Wyatt, director of OU’s Interdisciplinary Molecular and Cellular Biology Program.

The experiment, entirely funded by NASA dollars, is meant to study the effects of varying levels of gravity on the growth of plants. While the applications of the science may seem fairly limited, the experiment has potentially significant ramifications for humanity’s hopes of space travel, exploration and colonization of planets.

“When we analyze the data…  if it (these plants) were on the Moon, on Mars, how would that affect plant growth?” Wyatt explained. “Is there a break point? Is there a point where plants are just not going to respond because there’s so little gravity that they can’t even perceive it?”

To get that data, Meyers and Wyatt designed an experiment with small “Arabidopsis thaliana” seedlings (basically the “model” plant species for scientific experiments) placed in small growth capsules onto a “big centrifuge” that will run on the International Space Station.

“As you move out from the center of the rotor,” Meyers explained, “gravity is going to increase, so the seeds that you put closer to the center of that centrifuge… are going to feel a certain G-level, and the seeds on the outside of that will feel a greater G-level.”

The plants at the middle of the rotor will basically be experiencing “micro-gravity,” or the standard gravity level on the ISS as it’s in orbit around Earth.

Wyatt has been exploring how gravity affects the growth of plants for more than a decade, and the current experiment on ISS is a continuation of work started by Chris Wolverton at Ohio Wesleyan University a few years ago. Wolverton in partnership with Wyatt obtained funding to launch seedlings to the ISS on another SpaceX rocket back in 2015.

“His original experiment was to fly the plant materials, take images of it, and analyze the images, and nothing came down,” Wyatt explained. “I got involved with the idea that we would like to do molecular analysis of the materials, and then that could be a critical aspect of this project… Everybody is going to want to know what genes are turned on or not.”

Meyers and Wyatt watched the rocket containing their latest experiment ascend from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on Friday, Dec. 15. They’re expecting to get the plants back from the experiment, in order to analyze the molecular structure, sometime next month after the next commercial resupply mission to the ISS.

The different gravity levels that each of the seedlings will experience will provide valuable information to Wyatt and Meyers and for NASA; for example, the G-force experienced by one seedling will mirror that of the gravity on Mars, and another will match gravity on the Moon.

Wyatt explained that available room is at a premium with spaceflight. Seeds take up less space than whole fruits, vegetables and grains, so being able to grow at least some of the food on a hypothetical colony on Mars or the Moon would save space and time. Additionally, Meyers said, NASA is very interested in the potential for “bio-regenerative life support” for space travel and the space station. So, growing a lot of plants on the ISS could help produce oxygen and scrub carbon dioxide from the internal atmosphere, to add to the current mechanical and chemical systems used to produce oxygen.

Wyatt explained that further research in this realm could also help the international science community determine which plants would be best for growth aboard space craft or on colonies on other planets.