Australian Virtual Astronaut Challenge
Grow for Launch
Preparing for a lunar growth mission!
The challenge:
- Complete a scientific investigation of plants grown without soil and in different nutrient concentrations.
- Re-think the design of the growth chamber and nutrient and light conditions for optimal growth.
- Complete a food sensory test to help think about what makes food enjoyable.
- Create a delicious plant-based recipe based on your produce.
Includes the Grow for Launch Kit
- Coriander seeds
- Tweezers
- Gyrosnaps – a substrate-free reusable plant growth system
- Hydrogel
- Dropper
- Nutrients – Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphate.
- Test strips
- Mission sticker
You will need to provide two soft drink bottles with wide openings (34mm).
Partners
- Magnitude.io
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space
- AVA Challenge
Steps
Control the variables, measure the results
Steps:
-
Read “Growing Plants in Space” in the resource pack
-
Follow the Experiment Method to test your hypothesis.
-
Record everything you do. Use the Mission Report to record your hypothesis and data
-
Use your data to see if your Hypothesis is correct
-
Log your data with Grow for Launch Mission Control
Resources to be published soon!
About Plants for Space
The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space is an international research consortium building novel solutions for long-term space habitation and on-Earth sustainability. This diverse team brings together a wide range of researchers in disciplines across plant science, nutrition, food science, engineering, psychology and space law.
The goal is to re-imagine plant design and bioresource production through the lens of space. Through four missions, Plants for Space paves the way for off-Earth habitation while delivering innovative solutions that enhance sustainability on Earth.
- Complete nutrition from plant-based foods.
- Zero waste optimised for control environments.
- On-demand bioresource production.
- Future-ready workforce and society.
Option:
Exolab
The ExoLab system can be purchased but is not required!
Measure your data and compare live with the next Exolab
Learn more
Listen as experiment lead Ted Tegami from Magnitude.io and Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education talk about the Simple Seeds experiment.
