With Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and the remainder of the Axiom-4 crew anticipated again on earth on Tuesday, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) right here is making ready for post-flight area research utilizing the crop seeds that were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the high-profile mission.
Post-flight research will probably be carried out in collaboration with the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), which launched the seeds for the challenge, in accordance to IIST sources.
Seeds of Jyothi and Uma rice varieties, Kanakamani (horse gram), Vellayani Vijay (tomato), Thilakathara (sesame) and Soorya (brinjal/eggplant) were sent to the ISS beneath the ‘Crop Seeds on ISS’, a challenge spearheaded by the IIST’s Space Biology Lab.
The IIST officers stated they anticipated the seeds to attain Thiruvananthapuram inside just a few days.
The biology payload consisted of dry seeds that were packed and uncovered to microgravity situations on the ISS and returned to earth. Back on earth, the space-returned samples will probably be grown to assess the distinctive results of microgravity on progress and yield parameters and how it will likely be manifested in progress.
Comparative research will probably be carried out utilizing three units of samples beneath completely different situations.
The ‘Crop Seeds on ISS’ challenge was the end result of multi-level memorandums of understanding between the ISRO and the European Space Agency, the ISRO’s Human Spaceflight Centre (HSFC) and the IIST, and the IIST and the KAU.
IIST Vice- Chancellor Dipankar Banerjee and HSFC Director D.Ok. Singh had inked an MoU on this regard in May. Ok.G. Sreejalakshmi, Professor, IIST, is the Principal Investigator of the challenge.
