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Intro music.

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Scientists in Kennedy Space Center's Space Life Sciences
Lab are growing ordinary salad ingredients in a 
pretty extraordinary way.

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But they're not growing the food for themselves -- 
they're trying to find the best ways to grow
plants in space.

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Plant physiologist Ray Wheeler and his colleagues 
are experimenting with how plants grow in different

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kinds of lighting, carbon dioxide levels and temperatures.

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Radishes, onions, Bibb lettuce and other plants are growing hydroponically, meaning they're cultivated in a 
nutrient-rich liquid rather than in soil.

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The scientists are exploring ways that plants could contribute 
to a bioregenerative life support system.

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Part of that system would include growing crops to provide 
food for astronauts on long-duration space missions.

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The Vision for Space Exploration calls for long journeys 
to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

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"A big issue for undertaking those expeditions in the 
future will be: How do you provide life support on 
those missions for the humans on those missions?

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And providing food and a reliable source of oxygen 
and CO2 (carbon dioxide) removal and even a water 
purification system?

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Plants provide all of this, so I think it's a 
great fit for the exploration vision for the agency."

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Plant research taking place today may benefit tomorrow's 
space crews, as they explore worlds beyond our own.

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