フランスのテロ事件など、殺伐としたニュースが流れているなか、ちょっと素敵な話が「HortiBiz」に掲載されていた。タイトルは、”NASA to grow flowers in space for first time”（「米国航空宇宙局が、宇宙空間ではじめて花を栽培することに」）。
宇宙で最初に花を咲かせる花は、百日草【ヒャクニチソウ】になるらしい。宇宙での実験は、リンドグレン飛行士によって執行されるが、野菜栽培システムは、ケネディセンターに持ち込まれている。
LEDライトを毎日10時間点灯させ、14時間は消灯。水と栄養を補給して花が咲くかどうかをみる。到花日数（種を植え付けてから花が咲くまでの日数)は、レタス栽培の約二倍（60日）を見込んでいる。
なぜ選ばれた種子が、百日草なのかについての説明はない。2017年には、トマトでの実験が予定されている。
以下では、全文を引用する。
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Flowers could be sprouting on the International Space Station (ISS) after the New Year, because of NASA’s first flower crop experiment on the orbiting laboratory. NASA space traveler Kjell Lindgren actuated the Veggie plant growth system and its establishing “pillows” containing Zinnia seeds on the space station on November 16.
Growing Zinnias in circle will give prior data about other flowering plants that could be developed in space. It is the first occasion that a blossoming harvest will be developed on the orbiting laboratory, NASA said. “Growing a blossoming product is more testing than growing a vegetative harvest, for example, lettuce,” said Gioia Massa, NASA Kennedy Space Center payload researcher for Veggie. “Lighting and other environmental parameters are more basic,” said Massa. Lindgren will turn on the red, blue and green LED lights, actuate the water and supplement system to Veggie, and screen the plant growth. The Zinnias will develop for 60 days, which is twice the length of the first and second harvest of Outredgeous red romaine lettuce that grew on the space station.
Amid the growth cycle, the LED lights will be on for 10 hours and off for 14 hours keeping in mind the end goal to invigorate the plants to blossom. “Growing the Zinnia plants will propel our insight into how plants grow in the Veggie development system, and will empower fruiting plants like tomatoes to be developed and eaten in space utilizing Veggie as the as a part of circle greenery enclosure,” said Trent Smith, Veggie program manager at Kennedy.
Scientists likewise plan to assemble great information with respect to long-length of time seed stow and germination, whether dust could be an issue, and the effects on group assurance. Developing tomato plants on the space station is made plans for 2017, NASA said. The Veggie framework was produced by Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin, and tried at Kennedy before flight. Veggie, alongside two plans of pads containing romaine seeds and one plan of zinnias, was conveyed to the station by SpaceX on the third payload resupply mission in April 2014.
11/19/2015 – DesiSpy
