Experiment

Short-term harvest of the SpaceSeed performed onboard Kibo

* Dates and times are given in Japan Standard Time (JST)

Short-term harvest of JAXA's long-term plant growth experiment, SpaceSeed^*1, was performed onboard Kibo over the night of October 13, 2009.

*1 Life Cycle of Higher Plants under Microgravity Conditions


Principal Investigator: Seiichiro Kamisaka, Visiting Professor at Toyama University, Emeritus Professor at Osaka City University

This plant growth experiment in space uses Arabidopsis thaliana, known as thale cress, and aims at investigating gravitational effects on plant's life cycle from seed germination through seed production. During the experiment, growing process of the plants will be closely observed. Harvested seeds and plants will be refrigerated and or frozen as samples to be returned to the ground.

This time, Arabidopsis thaliana plants will be harvested on Day 30 (after germination). The samples harvested during this period are for evaluating effects of microgravity on the growing process of the plant. The harvested plants will be refrigerated and or frozen, and stowed in Kibo until their return to the ground next year.

The SpaceSeed experiment will continue until the middle of November 2009; the goal of the experiment is to harvest the seeds and to bring the collected samples back to the ground.

Arabidopsis thaliana plants before harvested

(Photo Credit: JAXA/Toyama University)

• Arabidopsis thaliana on Day 30 after germination in space. Top of the plants are flowering.
• The samples collected this period are used for determining effects of microgravity on growing process of the plants, especially on the genes involved in cell wall formation.

NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott holding the sample collection tubes that contained harvested leafs, stems and flowers of the space-grown Arabidopsis thaliana plants

(Photo Credit: JAXA/Toyama University)

Life Cycle of Higher Plants under Microgravity Conditions (Space Seed)

*All times are Japan Standard Time (JST)