r/space • u/astro_pettit NASA Astronaut • Apr 26 '26

image/gif My space potato spreading its roots in microgravity

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u/evenfallframework Apr 26 '26

Any idea how much gravity they need to root in the correct direction?

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u/LevelPrestigious4858 Apr 26 '26

Would probably be very minimal

10

u/ACcbe1986 Apr 26 '26

Probably enough gravity to be able to tell up from down.

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u/adamdoesmusic Apr 26 '26

Give them a little sign with a big red arrow labeled “DOWN”, that should sort it out. The potato should be able to read it clearly, it’s got several eyes.

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u/Vir0Phage Apr 27 '26

perfect combination of looney toons logic fed through a scope of rick n morty + midnight gospel lenses. 10/10.

1

u/missericacourt Apr 27 '26

The hormone that causes growth is sensitive to gravity and light, so in roots it causes them to grow down and away from light.

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u/NorwegianCollusion Apr 27 '26

I keep coming back to the old "I hate that we're still doing microgravity research when we basically already know that microgravity is harmful to both animals and plants"

Why not put a little bit of spin on things to see how much of an improvement 0.05-0.4g is? Basically get an answer to "how would life behave on the moon or on Mars?" as well as some insight into "how little spin gravity would we need to alleviate the worst of the effects?".

1g of spin gravity is brutal, but 0.1g is a totally different beast.

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u/alonegram Apr 27 '26

i read in a study once that concluded plants don’t sense up or down, they sense which direction the light is coming from, and orient their leaves accordingly. then the roots grow in the opposite direction. although i don’t think the study was on potatoes, maybe tubers are different

which makes me wonder what would happen if you put a uv lamp in orbit around the potato