In addition to the mission of leaving the cabin, long-term stay in orbit and even long-term space exploration, how to use plants to ensure the food, oxygen and pure water needed for human survival in the extraterrestrial environment is an important issue of concern to space life sciences. On July 29, the Chinese space station launched the "Space Green Plant" cultivation experiment in orbit, and the goal of this plant cultivation experiment is to complete the cultivation of rice in space from seed to seed life cycle.
At present, the seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana and rice in the universal experiment module of life ecology in the sky capsule have been successfully germinated, Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings have grown multiple leaves, tall rice seedlings have grown to about 30 cm tall, and dwarf rice is also 5 to 6 cm high, and the growth state is good.
What kind of equipment is needed to cultivate plants in space? In order to bring you an intuitive feeling, the reporter recently visited the research and development institution of the equipment - the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where there is the "same" space green plant cultivation equipment as the Q space capsule.
The reporter visited the space station's "same model" plant cultivation equipment
Dou Yunyun, A CCTV reporter: Such an experimental equipment around me is exactly the same equipment used in arabidopsis and rice planting on the space station, and the seeds of rice and Arabidopsis thaliana in the space station are placed in such an experimental unit, and then put into such equipment, and then a planting is carried out, so that such experimental equipment can provide some environment and conditions needed for rice and Arabidopsis thaliana cultivation.
Zhang Tao, head of the space life science instrument team at the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: We have different cameras here, the camera above can monitor the growth of the whole plant, the fluorescent camera below is that we can give the plant growth process it has some special fluorescence expression, then it reaches a certain stage, we use fluorescent lamps to excite it, to obtain fluorescence images, you can get a result of its special expression, which is also the result of a study.
At the same time, we have divided two temperature zones in the entire large chamber, one temperature zone is a little lower, for example, to a range of 21 degrees Celsius, and the other temperature zone may reach 30 degrees Celsius, these two temperature zones are actually suitable for different plant growth. For example, like rice, it requires a higher temperature, Arabidopsis thaliana requires a lower temperature, according to the needs of different plants for light sources, we can adjust the components of this light through instructions.
According to reports, the life ecological science experimental system to a variety of types of biological individuals such as plant seeds, seedlings, plants, taking into account the animal individual as experimental samples, in addition to rice, Arabidopsis thaliana, will also carry out nematodes, fruit flies, zebrafish and other spatial growth experiments, the expected results will promote human understanding of the nature of life phenomena, reveal the impact of microgravity on the growth, development and aging of biological individuals, explore space radiation biology and the mechanism of origin of life, and provide scientific basis for the health and protection of astronauts.
It is expected to achieve "seed-to-seed" cultivation of space rice
In the past six decades, scientists have conducted a lot of research on space planting and cultivated plants, and conducted more than 20 kinds of plant cultivation experiments in various space vehicles.
At present, only a few crops of rape, wheat and peas have completed seed-to-seed experiments in space. The significance of the space experiment of the Chinese space station is to realize the cultivation experiment of the whole life cycle of rice "from seed to seed" for the first time under the conditions of space microgravity.
At the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, there is such an instrument dedicated to simulating the growth of plants in microgravity.
Zheng Huiqiong, researcher at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences: This is a rotary machine. Its role is to simulate the microgravity effect of space, because the experimental opportunity of space is very precious after all, to do an experiment in the sky, to wait a long time, so on the ground we will create such an instrument to simulate, after losing the direction of the impact on plants, for our future design of plants more suitable for space to provide a reference. But after all, gravity on the ground still exists, and can only simulate part of the effect of space, so in the end you have to understand the impact of the space environment on plants, and you must go up to space to do it, so this time we have plant growth experiments in that question capsule.
The Spatial Plant Growth Experiment focuses on three major scientific questions
The project focuses on three key scientific questions: How does microgravity affect flowering? What is the molecular mechanism by which microgravity affects plant flowering? Can microgravity environmental action be used to control the flowering of plants? Around these three key scientific questions, by analyzing and comparing the role of microgravity in the flowering process of plants, the molecular basis of microgravity regulation of flowering and the expression changes of key genes are obtained, so as to provide theoretical guidance for future planting of food in space.
Zheng Huiqiong, researcher at the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences: The next step is to sample through astronauts in the glove box, we use it in two situations, one is the flowering period, this leaf is picked back, and then through cryopreservation to come back to analyze, in space these genes and protein changes are compared with the ground, in addition, we are also collected back in space for analysis, analyze the situation of seeds, this time we hope to be able to successfully receive rice seeds in space, In this way, we will complete the whole life cycle of rice from seed to seed for the first time in the world.
Source: CCTV News