International Space Station astronauts worked on plant growth and disease-resistance experiments October 30, a day after two crew members installed a new roll-out solar array, NASA reported.
NASA flight engineer Anil Menon investigated how microgravity affects cell division in green algae and cultured tobacco cells inside the Kibo laboratory. The agency said the work may support future food production on the Moon and Mars. That is a potential application of the research, rather than a demonstrated crop-production outcome.
Flight engineer Luke Delaney worked on a separate plant-disease study. He inoculated thale cress samples following exposure to a fungal pathogen and placed them in an incubator capable of generating artificial gravity. NASA said the investigation may inform crop disease resistance in space and on Earth.
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk tested the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device’s cycle in the Columbus laboratory. The compact exercise system is being evaluated for use during long missions.
The Friday work followed Menon and Kutryk’s October 29 spacewalk, which lasted seven hours and 11 minutes. They attached a roll-out solar array to the station’s port-side truss and released tension bolts so it could unfurl. NASA reported the new array was generating power.
The pair is scheduled to install another array November 5. NASA describes that planned installation as the eighth and final roll-out array in an upgrade effort begun in June 2021, intended to increase generating capacity from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts.
The agency’s update also described maintenance by Jessica Watkins and physics, orientation and operational-efficiency studies by the Roscosmos crew. The report distinguishes Friday’s research from Thursday’s completed installation and the power work still planned for November.
Sources: NASA’s October 30 International Space Station activity update.