ISRO has achieved a major milestone by germinating cowpea seeds in space within 4 days. The breakthrough has opened possibilities of growing plants in extreme conditions paving the way for advancements in space technology.
ISRO updated about this achievement on X stating, “Life sprouts in space! VSSC’s CROPS (Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies) experiment onboard PSLV-C60 POEM-4 successfully sprouted cowpea seeds in 4 days. Leaves expected soon.
For the research, eight cowpea seeds were placed in a regulated closed box setting at precise temperature control. It resulted in the sprouting of seeds in four days while leaves are also anticipated to grow soon.
The experiment applied the Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies (CROPS) developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and launched on the POEM-4 platform of the PSLV-C60 mission to understand the growth of plants in space conditions. This project is a subset of a bigger initiative to develop sustainable farming practices for extraterrestrial environments.
The experiment features high-resolution camera imaging, oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration, relative humidity, temperature, and soil moisture.
