BBC Learnings · Section 7

Food made in space

Last November, NASA launched a very unusual home delivery service – a rocket carrying four tonnes of supplies to the ISS,

Level: C1 · 113 sentences

Transcript

1. Last November, NASA launched a very unusual home delivery service –
2. a rocket carrying four tonnes of supplies to the ISS,
3. the International Space Station.
4. Among the scientific equipment were 12 bottles of red wine
5. from the famous Bordeaux region of France.
6. The astronauts might have wanted a glass of wine with dinner,
7. but the real purpose of the bottles was to explore the possibility
8. of producing food and drink in space – not for astronauts,
9. but for people back on Earth.
10. In today's programme, we'll be finding out
11. how growing plants in space can develop crops,
12. which are more productive and more resistant to climate change here on Earth.
13. And we'll hear how plants can grow
14. in environments with little or no natural light.
15. But first, today's quiz question.
16. What was the first food grown in space?
17. Was it a potatoes, b lettuce or c tomatoes?
18. Well, in the film The Martian,
19. a stranded astronaut grows potatoes on Mars.
20. I know it's only a film, but I'll say a potatoes.
21. OK. We'll find out the answer later.
22. Now, you might be wondering how it's possible to grow plants without natural light.
23. British company Vertical Future has been working on this problem.
24. by developing indoor farming methods in partnership with NASA.
25. Here's their head of research, Jen Bromley,
26. explaining the process to BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain.
27. Basically, we use LED lighting and we
28. use LED lights that are tuned to specific wavelengths.
29. So if you imagine what the rainbow looks like,
30. the reason a plant looks green
31. is because it's not using all the green light.
32. It actually reflects a lot of that back.
33. So the reason why it looks pink in here
34. is because we're actually only using red light
35. and blue light to grow the plants.
36. And that essentially tailors the light diet
37. so that the plants look kind
38. of black when you look at them
39. because they're not reflecting any light.
40. They're being super efficient.
41. They're using up every photon that hits them.
42. The lack of natural light in space means
43. that plants are grown using LED lights.
44. LED is an abbreviation of light-emitting diode,
45. an electronic device that lights up
46. when electricity is passed through it.
47. On Earth, plants look green because they reflect back
48. any light travelling at a certain wavelength –
49. the distance between two waves of light
50. which makes things appear to us
51. in the various colours of the rainbow.
52. But when scientists control the wavelengths being fed,
53. plants are able to absorb every photon –
54. particle of light energy making them appear black.
55. Each particle of light that hits the leaves is absorbed
56. and through photosynthesis is converted into plant food.
57. NASA found that different colour combinations or light recipes
58. can change a plant's shape, size and even flavour.
59. But the lack of natural light isn't the biggest
60. obstacle to growing food in space.
61. Here's Joya Massa, Chief Plant Scientist
62. at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, to explain.
63. Microgravity is really challenging, but plants are amazing.
64. They can adapt to so many different environments.
65. And we call this plasticity because they can turn
66. on or off their genes to really
67. adapt to all sorts of conditions.
68. And that's why you see plants
69. growing in different areas on Earth.
70. The same type of plant may look very different because it's adapting
71. to the environment in that specific location.
72. On Earth, plants use gravity to position themselves,
73. shoots grow up, roots grow down,
74. but this doesn't apply in space because of microgravity,
75. the weaker pull of gravity making things float and seem weightless.
76. Plants can only survive in these conditions due to their plasticity,
77. the ability of living organisms to adapt and cope
78. with changes in the environment by changing their biological structure.
79. Plants adapt themselves to being in space by manipulating their genes.
80. chemicals and DNA in the cells of plants
81. and animals which control their development and behaviour.
82. In the low-gravity atmosphere of space,
83. plants become stressed, but they adapt genetically.
84. And as a result, they're stronger and more resilient to other,
85. less stressful events when they return home to Earth.
86. Like those bottles of red wine orbiting Earth as we speak,
87. the effects of microgravity on the wine's organic composition
88. will be studied and could hopefully offer solutions
89. for growing food in Earth's changing climate.
90. So, Neil, if it wasn't red grapes,
91. what was the first food grown in space?
92. Ah yes, in today's quiz question
93. I asked what the first plant grown
94. in space was. I said a potatoes.
95. But in fact it was... b lettuce
96. grown over 15 months on the ISS
97. and eaten in 15 minutes in the first ever space salad.
98. Today we've been discussing the possibilities
99. of growing plants in space using LED lights,
100. devices that use electricity to produce light.
101. The energy needed for plants to grow is contained
102. in photons or light particles travelling at different wavelengths,
103. distances between light waves which make things look different colours.
104. Plants have evolved over millennia using the strong gravity on Earth,
105. but this change is in space because of microgravity.
106. the weaker gravitational pull making things
107. in space float and seem weightless.
108. Luckily, plants use their genes – the chemicals in DNA responsible for growth –
109. to adapt to new environments by changing
110. their biological structure, a process known as plasticity.
111. All of which makes it possible for astronauts to enjoy a glass
112. of wine and green salad in space.
113. And genetically stronger plant specimens to study back on Earth.