Jul 25 1979
From The Space Library
FBIS reported that the Salyut 6 cosmonauts were working on experiments to find out "whether tulips will flower in outer space" (see During May). In five months of scientific research, they had found that plants under weightless conditions generally would develop only to a certain stage: "tulips produced a nearly half-meter (18 inch) shoot, yet the buds refused to open." Scientists had decided that weightlessness affected normal plant development at the cellular level. The cosmonauts would try to verify this theory through experiments to lessen "the negative influence of weightlessness" through "artificial gravitation" available in a "biogravistat," a centrifuge producing acceleration "equal to what we experience on earth," with a rotating disc containing seed holders in which plants would grow. The station also kept a similar disc without rotation, planted with the same samples, and simultaneous tests were proceeding on the ground. First results showed the shoots produced under artificial gravity were much larger than those in weightlessness. Tass said the tests were "of tremendous importance." (FBIS, Tass in English, July 25/79)
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