Gardeners of the Galaxy
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orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Gardeners of the Galaxy
@orbitalgardens.bsky.social
42 followers 32 following 60 posts
Gardeners of the Galaxy is a podcast for all of the sentient beings in the universe who have a passion for plants. Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth... and beyond!
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Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
technology.esa.int
What if Old McDonald had a farm… on the Moon? 🚜 🌕

In a recent activity supported by @esa.int, a Norwegian research team looked into how we could create fertiliser using nutrients from lunar soil to grow plants on the Moon 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...
What farming on the Moon could look like
October 30, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
alexisclements.bsky.social
Mushrooms, a scientist who wasn’t really known in her day but managed to root herself in the field, and debating metaphors… It was inevitable that I would want to write about this fascinating little exhibit now up at the NY State Museum in Albany. Up @hyperallergic.com
The Woman Scientist and Artist Who Revolutionized the Study of Mushrooms
Scientists today still make use of Mary Banning’s research, examining the same mushrooms that she located, preserved, and packed away for posterity.
hyperallergic.com
July 28, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
eliseswritings.bsky.social
Writers,
If you'd like more writers to talk to during these quiet hours, let me know your country and I'll tag you in a thread!

For
🇳🇿 New Zealand -island?
🇦🇺 Australia -state?

Where are you in..?
Asia, Africa
🇪🇺 Europe
🇬🇧UK

Or are you a night owl/early riser ✍️
🇨🇦 Canadian
🇺🇸 Usian
Latinx
July 26, 2025 at 6:56 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Interesting project from the Italian Space Agency and three universities, developing a new variety of rice for cultivation in space.

spacebotany.uk/blog/how-moo...

#SpacePlants #astrobotany
How Moon-Rice Could Feed Astronauts – and Earthlings - Space Botany
Header image: Collection of CRISPR-Cas mutagenised rice plants. Image credit: University of Milan. There’s no doubt about it – anyone embarking on a long duration...
spacebotany.uk
July 10, 2025 at 8:32 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
My round-up of stories from the world of space plants and gardening this week includes an update on EDEN LUNA, a Biosphere 2 retrospective & French food heading for the ISS!
emmadoughty.substack.com/p/gardeners-...
#astrobotany #SpacePlants
Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 8 July 2025
My Top 10 Stories from the world of space plants and gardening. This week we've got an update on EDEN LUNA, a Biosphere 2 retrospective & French food heading for the ISS!
emmadoughty.substack.com
July 8, 2025 at 12:09 PM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot will have gourmet French cuisine for her εpsilon space mission, including:

🧅 Onion soup with pink peppercorns & gratinéed croutons

🍗 Poultry with voatsiperifery pepper, tonka bean & creamy comté cheese polenta

#SpaceFood #ESA

www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
A pinch of France in space
ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot selected the French chef Anne-Sophie Pic to develop the bonus food she will bring to the International Space Station during her mission εpsilon.
www.esa.int
July 5, 2025 at 9:07 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
My top stories from the world of space plants and gardening include space bioreactors, a cultural crop seed payload, anthocyanins and synthetic lichen on Mars!

emmadoughty.substack.com/p/gardeners-...

#astrobotany #SpacePlants
Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 1 July 2025
My Top 10 Stories from the world of space plants and gardening. This week we've got space bioreactors, a cultural crop seed payload, anthocyanins and synthetic lichen on Mars!
emmadoughty.substack.com
July 1, 2025 at 2:21 PM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
This week’s Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report has plants for the Moon and for Mars, fungi to mine asteroids & people missing the point about space exploration.
#astrobotany #SpacePlants #ethnobotany
emmadoughty.substack.com/p/gardeners-...
Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 24 June 2025
My Top 10 Stories from the world of space plants and gardening. This week we've got plants for the Moon and for Mars, fungi to mine asteroids & people missing the point about space exploration.
emmadoughty.substack.com
June 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Cannabis seeds were among the biological payloads in MayaSat-1, which launched on the SpaceX Transporter 14 rideshare mission last night.

#SpacePlants #astrobotany

www.wired.com/story/scient...
Scientists Are Sending Cannabis Seeds to Space
The versatile cannabis plant could, some scientists think, one day be useful for lunar and Martian colonists. For now, researchers will subject its seeds to radiation in orbit and see what happens.
www.wired.com
June 24, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
botany.one
The Best Way to Farm on the Moon Uses Barely Any Fertiliser
botany.one/2025/06/the-...

Adding tiny amounts of organic waste transforms sterile lunar dust into farmland, but the secret lies in managing competing bacterial communities around plant roots.

#Botany #PlantScience 🧪
A whimsical illustration of wheat plants growing on the surface of a personified crescent moon against a starry night sky.
June 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
helmholtz.de
No sun. No soil. Still: over a ton of veggies in Antarctica. @dlr-en.bsky.social & @awi.de show how food production could work in extreme environments.
🔗 Find out how: t1p.de/l9799 #Helmholtz30
A white container of the EDEN ISS research facility is elevated on stilts in a frozen, remote environment under a clear blue sky. The side of the container displays a large logo featuring a plant above the Earth and Moon, alongside the text “EDEN ISS” and several national flags. The scene represents extreme plant cultivation for future space missions. The “30 Years Stories” logo is visible in the top right. The caption in the lower left reads: “#28 From the Antarctic to the Moon – Extreme Plant Cultivation for Space Applications.” The Helmholtz logo appears at the bottom right.
June 20, 2025 at 6:48 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
"While proposed bases on the Moon or Mars might get all the headlines, there's another equally hostile and largely unknown location a lot closer to home that explorers are looking towards: the bottom of the ocean."

www.sciencefocus.com/future-techn...
Can humans live under the sea? This live experiment plans to find out | BBC Science Focus Magazine
An advanced new research station is being developed to explore the potential for a human settlement under the ocean.
www.sciencefocus.com
June 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Scientists in China reckon that adding diatoms to lunar regolith could make it more fertile for growing plants.

#astrobotany #SpacePlants

spacebotany.uk/blog/moon-di...
Moon Dirt, Meet Diatoms – A Recipe for Extraterrestrial Farming - Space Botany
To grow gardens on the Moon, we might need to invite some diatoms to the party.
spacebotany.uk
June 11, 2025 at 3:35 PM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
This week's Mission Report is now live. It has plants launching on (now delayed) Axiom-4, a 3D-printed module for space experiments, magnets for plants in microgravity and more!

emmadoughty.substack.com/p/gardeners-...

#astrobotany #SpacePlants
Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 10 June 2025
My Top 10 Stories from the world of space plants and gardening. This week we've got plants launching on Axiom-4, a 3D-printed module for space experiments, magnets for plants in microgravity and more!
emmadoughty.substack.com
June 11, 2025 at 5:15 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Axiom-4 won't be launching today, and doesn't have a new launch date yet.

www.nasa.gov/blogs/spaces...
NASA, Partners Delay Axiom Mission 4, Reviewing Launch Date  - NASA
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are standing down from the launch opportunity on Wednesday, June 11, of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to re...
www.nasa.gov
June 11, 2025 at 5:13 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Indian companies Jaguar Space and Protoplanet have announced they will be working together to explore how microgravity affects traditional Himalayan crops.

#India #astrobotany #SpacePlants #Himalayas

spacebotany.uk/blog/advanci...
Advancing Space Agriculture with Himalayan Crops - Space Botany
India’s Protoplanet and Jaguar Space Partner to Explore Space Agriculture with Himalayan Crops
spacebotany.uk
May 29, 2025 at 8:21 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
I've put my weekly newsletter on the website this week. It has space chiles, Moon roses, extraterrestrial dandelions and a space garden in Venice. Plus I saw the whole of the Moon!

#SpacePlants #astrobotany

spacebotany.uk/blog/mission...
Mission Report: 27 May 2025 - Space Botany
My round-up of stories from the world of space plants and gardening. This week we've got space chiles, Moon roses, extraterrestrial dandelions and a space garden in Venice. Plus I saw the Moon!
spacebotany.uk
May 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
plants4space.bsky.social
We are pleased to announce the release of "PLACE", our 2024 annual report 🌱🚀

👉 To view and download the report, visit: plants4space.com/about

#P4S #SpaceResearch #PlantScience
About
plants4space.com
May 23, 2025 at 1:02 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
I saw the whole of the Moon!

Luke Jerram's artwork "Museum of the Moon" is currently on display at Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire.

#MuseumoftheMoon #Moon
Photograph of Luke Jerram’s artwork ‘Museum of the Moon’. Measuring seven metres in diameter, the moon features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface. The photo was taken while the piece was on display at Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire, UK. Although the lower half of the Moon is against a black background, the joists of the ceiling are visible in the top half of the image.
May 23, 2025 at 7:50 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
Chaos gardening is the ultimate plant-lover’s rebellion. It’s low-stakes, low-structure, and high-surprise - perfect for gardeners who crave creativity over control. It’s also a celebration of adaptability.

www.popsci.com/environment/...

#gardening
Embrace the fun of growing culinary plants in unexpected places
Edible plants are breaking out of the bed—and thriving in wild new places.
www.popsci.com
May 22, 2025 at 9:58 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
This week’s Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report has SPACE tomatoes in space, Moon rocks arriving in the UK and a photoshoot powered by plants!

#SpacePlants #astrobotany #gardening #botany #ethnobotany #plants

emmadoughty.substack.com/p/gardeners-...
Gardeners of the Galaxy Mission Report: 13 May 2025
My Top 10 Stories from the world of space plants and gardening. This week we've got SPACE tomatoes in space, Moon rocks arriving in the UK and a photoshoot powered by plants!
emmadoughty.substack.com
May 14, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
science.esa.int
Our XMM-Newton mission played a crucial role in investigating the longest and most energetic bursts of X-rays seen from a newly awakened black hole. 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭 🧪 8/8
A bright disc of purplish, white and gold lines surrounds a black ellipse-shaped area, that looks like a hole in space. A ball of shining material pierces through the disc; an eruption of bright white-to-gold rays encircles the small hole in the disc provoked by the passage of the shining ball.
May 6, 2025 at 12:04 PM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
The new post on the blog this week is about some fruit trees in Sweden that are growing from cuttings that flew on a suborbital space flight.

#astrobotany #SpacePlants

spacebotany.uk/blog/swedish...
Swedish Space Trees - Space Botany
Seven young apple trees are ready to be planted here on Earth after an exciting space mission. In November 2022, the SubOrbital Express-3 rocket launched...
spacebotany.uk
May 6, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Gardeners of the Galaxy
dlr-en.bsky.social
Scotty, beam me up! 🖖 The LUNA hall has a new addition: the FLEXhab space habitat. 🌒 This mobile home in a container will be used for oxygen supply testing, rock analysis, psychological experiments & more – greatly expanding LUNA's capabilities. ℹ️: www.dlr.de/en/blog/arch... 🔭
The FLEXhab container next to the LUNA hall in Cologne. A cosy dining area inside FLEXhab with blue seats, table and cupboard. The FLEXhab container provides a compact workspace for tasks like analyzing rock samples and preparing them for return to Earth. The sleeping area in FLEXhab includes four small padded sleeping berths.
May 1, 2025 at 11:37 AM
orbitalgardens.bsky.social
New episode of Gardeners of the Galaxy! This one is an exploration of Freeman Dyson's vision of bioengineered trees that could grow out of asteroids (or Moons or planets or comets) and create liveable environments for humans.

#SpacePlants #podcast #astrobotany

spacebotany.uk/blog/gotg66-...
GotG66: Dyson Trees - Space Botany
Emma the Space Gardener explores the concept of Dyson Trees: plants engineered to create liveable environments inside asteroids.
spacebotany.uk
April 29, 2025 at 7:44 AM