STS-135 Atlantis Launch. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
One of the last experiments to be flown on the NASA space shuttle program is helping to unravel the role of microgravity and its impact on plants and bacteria.
QinetiQ North America today announced the results of its first Symbiotic Nodulation in a Reduced Gravity Environment (SyNRGE) experiment.
Flown onboard Atlantis – America’s last space shuttle mission — the study looked into the effects of microgravity on host plant and bacteria cells.
According to QinetiQ North America officials – after a one-week analysis — the results of this experiment showed both the plants and their beneficial bacteria thrived in microgravity in their BRIC (Biological Research In a Canister) homes on the shuttle.
The SyNRGE experiment is part of a NASA grant to investigate the role of microgravity on biological nitrogen fixation.
Agriculturally challenged areas of planet Earth
The experiment results could help scientists find new ways to successfully grow food, such as beans, peas and alfalfa, in areas of our planet that are currently unable to support plant life.
Experiment findings can be used not only here on Earth, but for long-duration space missions. SyNRGE’s findings could dramatically reduce re-supply costs for astronaut provisions, make longer space missions possible, and free up valuable payload capacity on future missions.
“These results will provide scientists and future generations with the information we need to support and sustain life on long-term space missions and in agriculturally challenged areas of our own planet Earth,” said Dr. Michael Roberts of QinetiQ North America in a press statement.
QinetiQ North America (QNA) is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
For more information, visit:
www.qinetiq-na.com
By Leonard David