USU Researchers Working on New Plant Growth System for NASA

It’s been more than 50 years since humanity first began trying to grow plants in space — beginning with the Soviet Salyut 1 in 1971.

Fast forward to the present day, and NASA has successfully grown a variety of plants in space, including lettuces, mustard, tomatoes, peppers, and radishes aboard the International Space Station.

But here at Utah State, researchers in the Crop Physiology Lab and in Plants, Soils and Climate are developing a new way to grow plants in orbit. They’re building a new high-tech planter box that, if selected, will be installed in the ISS and act as a self-contained plant growth system.