BENGALURU: Marking a first for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), seeds of the popular ‘alasande kalu’ (or cowpea) have sprouted in microgravity conditions in space in just four days on board the space agency’s PS4-Orbital Experiment Module (POEM-4) platform, which is part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission launched on December 30 from Sriharikota.
"Life sprouts in space! VSSC's (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) CROPS (Compact Research module for Orbital Plant Studies) experiment on board PSLV-C60 POEM-4 successfully sprouted cowpea seeds in 4 days. Leaves expected soon," ISRO on Saturday said in a post on X.
CROPS is one of the 24 payloads on the POEM-4 platform, ten of which are from various Non-Government Entities (NGEs) comprising academia and start-ups received through IN-SPACe, and 14 are from ISRO/Department of Space (DOS) centres.
The CROPS payload is a multi-phase platform to develop and evolve ISRO’s capabilities for growing and sustaining flora in extraterrestrial environments. The objective of CROPS is to study how plants can grow in a sustained manner in the microgravity conditions in space, and is considered crucial for future long-duration space travel wherein growing plants inside the spacecraft would help sustain astronauts through adequate nutrition.
The present experiment carries eight cowpea seeds which are kept in conditions that simulate the ones plants could encounter during extended space travel.
ISRO said CROPS has been designed as a fully automated system in which a 5-7-day experiment is planned to demonstrate seed germination and plant sustenance until the two-leaf stage is achieved in a microgravity environment. The objective is to grow eight cowpea seeds in a closed-box environment with active thermal control. Passive measurements — including camera imaging, oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations, relative humidity (RH), temperature, and soil moisture monitoring — are available for plant growth and monitoring through this period.
However, this is not the first time that seeds are germinated in space. Seeds of Arabidopsis (a small flowering plant in the mustard family) and dwarf wheat have grown for six weeks and five weeks, respectively, in the Advanced Plant Habitat of the International Space Station; cotton seeds were the first plants to be gown on the Moon in China's Chang'e 4 biosphere experiment; and European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake took two kg of rocket seeds into space on the ISS in 2015, which grew, although much slower than in terrestrial conditions.