I was reading this and thought I would share it with all you gardeners out there.
Park Seed Company
1 Parkton Ave
Greenwood, SC 29647
Park Seed and NASA -- Seeds in Space I, II, and III
Park Seed joins forces with NASA in exciting experiments!
On July 4, 2006, Park Seed Company and NASA began the third leg of their long relationship, known as "Seeds in Space." SEEDS stands for Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students. And just as the name implies, this unusual project has given millions of students around the U.S.A. an opportunity to do serious, hands-on science with living material that has been to outer space and back. The story began in 1984 and continues even now, with a new batch of Park Seed Company seeds currently circling the Earth attached to the International Space Station.
Millions of tomato seeds were sent into space aboard 1984 Challenger Shuttle Mission STS-41C, as part of NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) to observe the effects of deep space on the seeds. The cargo remained in Earth orbit for 5 years until 1989, when Columbia Shuttle Mission STS-32 retrieved the LDEF, and the seeds were returned to Earth. They were then distributed to over 3 million students for use in science experiments—one of the largest science experiments ever.
Participating students from elementary schools, high schools, and colleges were given at least 50 flight seeds and 50 control seeds (i.e., seeds that never left Earth). Students designed their own experiments and participated in testing their own hypotheses, making decisions, and collecting data. Students prepared detailed reports about their observations, and those results were compiled and published in 1991 by NASA's Educational Affairs Division as SEEDS: A Celebration of Science.
(In case you are wondering, the space seeds did not grow into mutant killer tomatoes. As it turns out, space is a terrific place to store your seeds--it's nice and dry, and cold enough to keep the seeds dormant. On the down side, though, getting to a space station is pretty inconvenient when you want to pick up a few seeds for your garden!)
In 1997, Park Seed and NASA teamed up again. For the September 25, 1997 launch of NASA's shuttle Atlantis, Park Seed donated over 20 pounds of tomato seed, which were exposed to deep space conditions for 10-14 days, then returned to Earth for observation and germination tests. Concurrently, 20 pounds of tomato seed were lowered to NASA's manned underwater laboratory off Key Largo. Finally, a 20-pound control group was maintained at the Park Seed facility in Greenwood, South Carolina.
These seeds (some 300,000 packets) were then distributed by NASA to schools throughout America as part of NASA's "MARS" outreach program. Students were encouraged to grow tomatoes from the "Space Base" seeds, the "Earth Base" seeds, track the growth and other characteristics, and then keep Park Seed informed on the results.
The most recent Seeds in Space adventure began on July 4, 2006, when 3 million Basil seeds caught a ride to the International Space Station via NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery. This time, the seeds were stored in a "suitcase" that also contained materials being evaluated as part of the Materials International Space Station Experiments (MISSEs) 3 and 4. The suitcases, more properly called Passive Experiment Containers (PECsa) were attached to the International Space Station (ISS) during an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) that lasted for five hours and 54 minutes. Space station crewmen Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter worked diligently to complete their spacewalk "to-do" lists, including deployment of the MISSE samples.
The current plan is for the PECs to remain attached to the ISS for at least a year. And when our Basil seeds return to Earth, you can count on Park Seed Company and NASA to work closely with educators around the country to create another exciting biology project using those Seeds In Space!
