PRESS-RELEASE

Implementation of the first educational experiment on plants growing in the space greenhouse "LADA" on board the International Space Station

1.1. Title: Plants-2 (LADA-8)
1.2. Rationale: a long-duration program of scientific-applied investigations and experiments, planned on RS ISS, 1999.
1.3. Scientific-research organizations:

• State Scientific Center of Russian Federation Institute for Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP), Moscow, Russia.
• RSC "Energia", Korolev, Russia.
• Gagarin Russian State Research and Test Center of Cosmonaut Training, Star city, Russia.

2.0. Objectives of the investigation

The main objective of the experiment Plants-2 (LADA-8) is the conduction of space investigations for solving the questions of fundamental biology and creation of space crews' life support perspective systems. The experiment Plants-2 (LADA-8) is aimed at the obtaining of space seeds of peas with the purpose of implementation of biochemical, biophysical and genetic investigations of plants, grown form these seeds. The experiment Plants-2 (LADA-8) besides purely scientific objectives has scientific-cognitive objectives. During the experiment implementation on board the RS ISS pupils will at the same time cultivate plants on Earth in specially manufactured space greenhouse "Microlada" mock-ups and conduct comparative observations over the plants growth and development in conditions of gravitation and in conditions of weightlessness.

"Microlada" greenhouse

2.1. Object of the investigation - dwarf pea of the genetically marked line 131 from the collection of the chair of genetics and selection of the biological department of Moscow State Lomonosov University.
2.2. The objectives of the experiment are as follows:
· Investigation of the technology of plants organisms cultivation as applied to the regular greenhouse units;
· Determination of the percentage of shoots germination and viability;
· Conduction of the comparative analysis of the plants growth and development in the conditions of gravitation and weightlessness.

3.0. Scientific rationale

In a series of experiments conducted on board RS ISS a possibility was shown of normal ontogenetic development and reproduction of pea plants in conditions of weightlessness in a row of four successive generations. On-ground investigations of the plants grown from the space seeds gave contradictory results. Genetic investigations of the plants grown from the seeds of the first "space" generation did not discover any changes of their genetic status. However morphometric investigations showed differences between the plants from the "space" and "Earth" seeds on a series of indices. In particular, in plants from the "space" seeds increase of such indices as mass of the plants, number of peas on one plant, mass of the pea was observed. These data show that it is necessary to conduct deep biochemical, biophysical investigations of the plants, grown from space seeds. As in "LADA" greenhouse because of its small dimensions it is not possible to get a big number of seeds it is necessary to conduct additional cultivation of pea plants on board RS ISS.

Besides purely scientific objectives these experiments will include scientific-cognitive program. Parallel to the cultivation on board RS ISS pea plants, pupils will cultivate pea plants on Earth, that will allow them to conduct comparison of the process of the plants growth and development in conditions of weightlessness and in conditions of gravity.

4.0. Expected results

The experiment Plants-2 (LADA-8) in case of its successful implementation can provide information that will allow assessing production characteristics of legumes in weightlessness, validate agritechnical methods, obtain pea plants seeds for the conduction of genetic and biophysical investigations on Earth.

It will allow pupils to conduct comparative analysis of the plants growth and development in conditions of weightlessness and in conditions of gravitation and become acquainted with the methodology of space experiments conduction.

5.0. The experiment implementation on board ISS.

The experiment is implemented by the flight engineer of ISS-12 crew Valeriy Ivanovich Tokarev. The beginning of the experiment (watering and sowing of the seeds) is January 10, 2006 at 20.00, Moscow time. The first shoots appeared on January 17. Every week V. Tokarev takes pictures of the plants sowing. Till the present time two photo-sessions have been conducted - on January 16 and 23. In the last picture you can see 11 plants, the height of which is about 5 cm.

"LADA" space greenhouse and "Microlada" greenhouse in the laboratory "Human biological life support systems" SSC RF - IBMP RAS

6.0. The experiment implementation in educational institutions.

Lightning regime - twenty-four-hours.

Watering with desilting water - till the top of the pallet.

Temperature taking - daily.

Measuring of the plants height and their photographing - every week.

Observation over the phonological phases of the plants development (germs, budding, blossoming, formation of the fruit, ripening).

Pea plants in LADA greenhouse on board RS ISS (January 23, 2006)

7.0. Continuation of the scientific-educational program in the framework of the Russian scientific program on ISS.

In 2006 it is planned to implement on board RS ISS the experiment Plants-2 (LADA-9) that has the same objectives and tasks that the experiment Plants-2 (LADA-8), the main difference between these two experiments is the growing on board RS ISS pea of another line (L-102). The methodology of the experiment conduction and participation of schools in it remains the same as in the experiment Plants-2 (LADA-8).

8.0 Institute for biomedical problems invites for participation in this program educational institutions from different countries.