ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts has activated the first experiment
inside the European Columbus laboratory, the WAICO experiment, which
investigates the effect of gravity on plant root growth, has started inside
the module's Biolab facility.
WAICO, short for Waving and Coiling of Arabidopsis Roots at Different
g-levels, looks at the growth of two types of Arabidopsis seed. In all, two
different sets of seeds ? wild type and genetically modified type - will be
allowed to grow under varying levels of gravity, 0g and 1g, where g is the
equivalent of gravity on Earth.



The tiny Arabidopsis seeds will be left to grow for 10 to 15 days,
under controlled temperature, humidity and illumination conditions. Daily
video images document how the roots grow in space. Using Biolab's telemetry
capabilities, the video images are also made available on the ground for
real-time observations.

As the seeds grow, the experiment's lead scientist, Professor Guenther
Scherer from the Leibniz Universitat Hannover, Germany, will observe how the
level of gravity affects the characteristic spiralling and coiling root
growth seen on Earth.

The results of the WAICO experiment will contribute to a better
understanding of plant growth processes and could help to increase the
efficiency of agricultural processes on Earth.

With an eye on future plans for long-term human exploration missions
to the Moon and Mars, WAICO could also contribute to our knowledge of
growing crops in the space environment ? providing astronauts with
nutritional fresh produce during a voyage that could last as long as two
years.

At the end of the experiment run, Biolab will automatically flush the
cultivation box with a fixative, preserving the seeds in their final state
of growth, ready for later analysis back on Earth. The astronaut will also
document the plants' appearance at this time using high-resolution
photography .

The seedlings are set to return to Earth with the next Shuttle
mission, STS-123, targeted for launch on 11 March 2008 from NASA's Kennedy
Space Center, Florida.
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