Sarah Wyatt and her team are getting what could be a once-in-a-career chance of sending their research project to space.
Sarah Wyatt and her team are getting what could be a once-in-a-career chance of sending their research project to space.
Wyatt, a professor of plant biology at Ohio University, is sending more than 3,000 plants into orbit this December to study the effects zero-gravity has on plant growth. The study will give researchers insight into how plants from Earth perform among the stars.
Wyatt said she chose the Aribidopsis plant — a small, white flowering plant native to much of Europe and Asia — for the mission because its genome is simple and well-known, making it easier for researchers to see how life in space affected the plants.
With only two trips to space planned by NASA this year, landing the opportunity to conduct the research cannot be understated, Wyatt said.
“I was excited and not many people get to fly an experiment,” said Marilyn Hayden, a graduate student studying molecular and cellular biology. “So when I heard we got the chance to work in association with NASA on this project I was ecstatic.”
All her life, Wyatt has been interested in space flight. She’s making $94,732 in pay from OU this year.
“I watched the first moon landing in 1969 and it was such an exciting time with the space race and the excitement about space flight,” said Wyatt. “It really captured your imagination, and in my own way of getting to fulfill that dream to be able to fly my experiment and add to the catalogue of humanity.”
The plants have all been tested in a laboratory at OU for their trip to space, prior to their shipment to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where they’ll be tested again. Once the rocket Destiny launches in December, control of the experiment will be handed to NASA, Wyatt said.
Preparation involves what NASA engineers call “Integrating the Science,” which describes the process for transporting and adapting the plants to be space ready, Wyatt said. That includes placing them in containers specialized for life in space.
“It was amazing to see them show us how they’ll adapt our experiment to be ready for flight,” said Proma Basu, another graduate student working with Dr. Wyatt.
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