Plant Seed Growth
A 2U payload containing an extended-sized autonomous, self-contained plant-seed growth experiment that allows an internal camera to provide snapshots of the stages of growth during the experiment.
Customer Name: Valley Christian High School
Research: Plant Seed Growth
NanoRacks Facility: NanoLab Platform
Mission Duration: 09/2012 – 03/2013
Mission Status: Complete
More Info: From NASA website
Research Overview
NanoRacks-Valley Christian High School Plant Seed Growth (NanoRacks-VCHS Plant Seed) uses a two cube unit housed in the NanoRacks Platform on the International Space Station (ISS).
NanoRacks-VCHS Plant Seed is a high school experiment containing an extended-sized autonomous, self-contained plant-seed growth experiment which is plugged into a NanoRacks Platform on board the ISS. The internal camera provides snapshots of the stages of growth during the experiment. The science goals for NanoRacks-VCHS Plant Seed are proprietary.
Description
NanoRacks-Valley Christian High School Plant Seed Growth (NanoRacks-VCHS Plant Seed) uses a two cube unit box. NanoRacks-VCHS Plant Seed is a high school experiment containing an extended-sized autonomous, self-contained plant-seed growth experiment, that plugs into a NanoRacks Platform on board the International Space Station (ISS). The internal camera provides snapshots of the stages of growth during the experiment. The science goals for NanoRacks-VCHS Plant Seed are proprietary.
NanoRacks Facility is a multipurpose research facility providing power and data transfer capability to the NanoRacks Modules. Each NanoRacks Platform is approximately 17 x 9 x 20 inches and weighs approximately 12 pounds. A NanoRacks Platform is designed for use within the pressurized space station environment.
Each platform provides room for up to 16 Modules to plug effortlessly into a standard Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, which provides both power and data connectivity. Its plug and play system uses a simple, standardized interface that reduces payload integration cost and schedule for nanoscale research in microgravity.
Space Applications
This investigation is a part of a series of investigations to be conducted on board the ISS to provide the foundation for use of the ISS as a National Laboratory following assembly complete. The project is part of NanoRacks’ DreamUP! program which aims to stimulate students doing real work in space.
Earth Applications
The long-term goal of this project is to create a series of student projects that are sophisticated and economically efficient, allowing students to move beyond the classrooms and into low earth orbit with their research.
Operational Requirements
The experiment is activated by moving the respective switch on the NanoRacks Platform into the “ON” position, if needed. For the deactivation, the switch is moved to the “OFF” position.
Operational Protocols
An ISS crewmember powers down the NanoRacks Platform, and then plugs in the NanoRacks Modules. The NanoRacks Platform is powered up, and the data cable between the associated USB port on the NanoRacks Platform front panel and an EXPRESS Laptop computer is plugged in to collect data and download at designated times.
More info at Valley Christian High School ISS Project.
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