Students of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida, United States have received plant growing stations similar to the ones used by NASA scientists for research. The institute is collaborating with Veggie, a NASA funded program for researching the growth of edible plants in orbit. NASA is using the students to study the best species of plants that can be used in orbit, in space and on the surface of other planets, with a focus on Mars. The innovative approach uses student citizen scientists for actual research that will benefit long duration space missions, including space stations in orbit and interplanetary travel.
Trent Smith, project manager for Veggie said “Once you tell the students that the plants are candidates for space and for astronauts to eat on their journey to Mars they start paying a lot of attention. These answers are not in the back of the book. Whatever they find when they grow their plants, they are finding it out for the first time for anyone.” Amy Padolf, director of education at Fairchild said “It’s very powerful to put the science in the hands of the students. It is putting what they have learned to use in