Educational & Humanitarian projects on ISS Russian Segment

GRAPHOBOX Experiment

Experiment GRAPHOBOX is a part of the scientific research program to be conducted by ESA astronaut of the Dutch nationality Andre Kuipers onboard the ISS RS in the frame of DSM Delta Project. The European Space Agency is a customer of the preparation and implementation of the research program.

Objective:

Assess the effect of phototropism (growth towards a light source) and gravitropism (growth towards the gravitational vector) on the basic architecture of plants.

Task:

Recording of germination features of wild-type and mutant seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana in dark and blue (465 nm) low fluence light onboard ISS RS.

Science Hardware Used:

• GraPhoBox Launch Container consisting of:
• GraPhoBoxes with agar dishes with Arabidopsis Thaliana (2);
• ABS container (electronic device);
• Temperature data logger;
• GraPhaBox return container.

Support Equipment:

• Camera Nikon Coolpix 5400;
• Camcorder DSR PD-150P.

Experiment Results:

Temperature values recorded by the temperature logger, as well as photo and video materials demonstrating plants growth in microgravity.