Plants in space

Sunday 10th October 2021 3:00PM – 4:00PM
Location/Venue: Parish Church Sidmouth EX10 8LG

Plants don’t need much to thrive: sunlight, water and some soil, but how do you garden on the International Space Station where even the air has to be shipped from the Earth and a watering can simply doesn’t work?

We will discuss the challenges of growing plants in space and how this environment offers unique insight into both how plants work and how they serve to promote well-being, even when traveling at 17,500 miles per hour and growing at 250 miles straight up.

Dr Simon Gilroy is a professor in the Botany Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research is on how plants sense and respond to their environment. He works extensively with NASA on understanding how plants grow on the International Space Station and plans for using plants in life support on planetary bases.

Simon likes getting his hands dirty in the garden and making people laugh. Simon recently spent a year on sabbatical at the Kennedy Space Center. Simon regularly designs spaceflight experiments with NASA and loves sharing his passion for science with the general public with organisations including local National Public Radio (NPR), Science, National Geographic, the NewYork times, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and was recently interviewed for Japanese television.

The event will be live-streamed to the Parish Church from the USA. 

Please book your free tickets via the above link.