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Zinnia plant in bloom aboard an Earth orbiting space station. The growth of plants in outer space has elicited much scientific interest. [1] In the late 20th and early 21st century, plants were often taken into space in low Earth orbit to be grown in a weightless but pressurized controlled environment, sometimes called space gardens. [1]
The study of plant response in space environments is another subject of astrobotany research. In space, plants encounter unique environmental stressors not found on Earth including microgravity, ionizing radiation, and oxidative stress. [23] Experiments have shown that these stressors cause genetic alterations in plant metabolism pathways.
However, plants experience normal growth given that directional light is provided. [10] Normal growth is classified as opposite root and shoot growth direction. This being said, many plants grown in a space flight environment have been significantly smaller than those grown on Earth's surface and grew at a slower rate. [10]
The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) is a plant growth system developed and used by NASA in space environments. The purpose of Veggie is to provide a self-sufficient and sustainable food source for astronauts as well as a means of recreation and relaxation through therapeutic gardening. [ 2 ]
Although established space habitats are a stock element in science fiction stories, fictional works that explore the themes, social or practical, of the settlement and occupation of a habitable world are more rare. [citation needed] Solaris is noted for its critique of space colonization of inhabited planets.
[2] [6] Occasionally, the space stations are connected to the planet they are orbiting via a space elevator, a concept which was introduced to science fiction separately by Arthur C. Clarke and Charles Sheffield in 1979. [6] In fiction, space stations were largely superseded by space habitats in the final quarter of the 20th century. [2]
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. [1] Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers. [2]
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, phytón = "plant" and γεωγραφία, geographía = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species and their influence on the earth's surface. [1]