Tomatoes on the Moon
by: Charlene Rennick
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If you are wondering how plants make water, you can try this experiment: Make a Small Greenhouse You will need: Put some soil in the pot and place the bean seed gently on top. Cover it with a ½ inch of soil. You can spray the seed with water to help it get started. Once it is big enough to have a stem, put the 4 Popsicle sticks in a square to hold up the plastic bag. Slowly lower the plastic bag over the plant, making sure you leave enough room at the top for the stem to grow taller. Place in a sunny location If this happens, you shouldn’t have to water the plant because it is actually making its own water!! |
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Did you know that tomatoes will grow in outer space? Can you imagine astronauts enjoying a fresh, crunchy salad with their freeze-dried protein powder?
Is there a grocery store floating around the universe? Where do people who live on a rocket ship get vegetables and fruit?
NASA is word made of four letters that stand for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Engineers, who work at NASA, have a very important job to do. They design greenhouses that can be built outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, on the moon, in deserts or on the cold Arctic and Antarctic continents.
A greenhouse is a building made of clear walls so the sunlight can shine through every side including the roof. The heat from the sun is trapped inside the building and warms it. Bumblebees are used to pollinate the plants because other insects cannot get inside to do this job. Bumblebees are also really good at keeping away other kinds of insects that will eat the plants or carry diseases to them.
Space greenhouses use a special gardening system called hydroponics, to grow vegetables and fruit in places where gardens cannot normally be planted. Special hydroponic light bulbs are used instead of sunlight because it is dark all the time in space. This allows scientists to grow plants on the moon or in the Antarctic where there are only a few months of sunlight.
Hydroponic gardens use very little water. In outer space, moisture from people (sweat) and plants (transpiration) is recycled, cleaned by a filter and used to water the plants. Hydroponic greenhouses don’t use soil, either. The plant’s roots are surrounded by small stones or other bits of material that the roots can cling to inside the container.
NASA researchers grow lettuce, onions, radishes, basil, peppers, parsley, beans, peas and many other kinds of fruit and vegetables.
Now you know how tomatoes grow on the moon!
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