A Cal State Northridge biology professor has received two NASA grants totaling $700,000 to study growing leafy greens in space and how a salt-tolerant microbe survives hostile environments, the university announced Tuesday.
Chhandak Basu’s latest grant, for $400,000, will fund research into how microgravity and drought-like conditions affect plants, particularly leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach and mustard greens, and explore ways to mitigate the effects, according to the university.
The award follows a $300,000 NASA grant Basu received to study how a salt-tolerant microbe survives exposure to ultraviolet light, heavy metals and high salt concentrations.
“In the previous grant, we studied the molecular and genomic mechanisms that enable the microbe Halobacterium salinarum to survive exposure to ultraviolet light, heavy metals, and high salt concentrations,” Basu said. “This research could provide insights into the origin of life and the possibility of life beyond Earth.”
Basu is partnering with researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, including co-investigator Craig Everroad, to study how leafy plants grow in microgravity environments such as the International Space Station and in drought conditions similar to those on the moon and Mars, university officials said.
Basu said growing fresh food in space could provide astronauts with an alternative to packaged foods while offering potential psychological benefits from caring for living plants in the isolated environment of a space station.
“Astronauts prefer to eat fresh food, most of us do,” he said. “The fruit that they sometimes eat comes in a tube and, to be honest, can taste pretty bad. If they can grow lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, fresh leafy vegetables, all they’ll need to do is bring a bottle of dressing from Earth and they can have a salad that does not come out of a tube-like toothpaste.”
Basu said caring for plants could also benefit astronauts who are separated from friends and family for extended periods.
“When they take care of a plant, watering and nurturing it, it positively impacts their mental health,” he said. “Besides, green is considered a soothing color.”
Researchers will use a device known as a clinostat, which rotates plants to negate the effects of gravitational pull and effectively confuse the plants about the direction of gravity.
“The plants `think’ that they are in space because they don’t know where the center of gravity is, and that will help us understand what happens to these plants in space and give us clues to help them grow in those conditions,” Basu said.
The team also plans to study microbes growing near the root zones of plants cultivated in simulated Martian and lunar soils.
Basu said the research could have applications on Earth as drought conditions increase and water becomes more scarce.
“As water becomes more and more precious, we need all the information we can to help understand how we can grow food in drought conditions,” he said.
The latest grant also provides funding, including stipends, for two to three CSUN students to accompany Basu to Ames Research Center and conduct research alongside NASA scientists.
“It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Basu said. “It’s an opportunity for them to truly see the potential ahead of them, while helping to conduct research that could help future generations.”