Astronomy on Tap Flagstaff | Growing Food in Space

Join Lowell Observatory and Mother Road Brewing Co. on September 30th at 6:30pm for Astronomy on Tap! Listen to fascinating science talks, play trivia to win out-of-this-world prizes, and of course, enjoy Mother Road brews on tap.

This month’s speaker is Laura Lee. She is a Ph.D candidate at Northern Arizona University in the Astronomy and Planetary Science Department. She will be talking about growing food in space and as space agencies look toward long-duration missions on the Moon and Mars, developing sustainable agriculture beyond Earth has become increasingly important. Growing crops in local regolith would ease payload constraints and enable greater self-sufficiency. However, previous studies have shown that plants grown in extraterrestrial regolith, both real and simulated, often experience stress from nutrient deficiency and metal toxicity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, known for their ancient symbiosis with most plants on Earth, may offer a solution by improving rooting structures, enhancing nutrient uptake, and helping crops tolerate harsh soil chemistry. She will present findings from our experiments examining how different nitrogen sources and symbiotic fungi influence crop growth in space-like soils.