It’s Gardeners of the Galaxy’s fifth birthday! To mark this milestone, I'm gazing into the future of astrobotany with my very own crystal ball. What plants will we be growing on the Moon? Who are the next generation of astrobotanists preparing for space? And which seeds are starting their cosmic journey? Plus, a couple of fellow space-gardening enthusiasts share their own predictions.

Find the show notes for this episode, and much more about growing plants in space, at https://spacebotany.uk/.

Emma the Space gardener explores the concept of a Dyson Tree, an engineered plant that would grow out of an asteroid, creating a habitable environment for humans within.

Sign up for the Gardeners of the Galaxy: MIssion Report newsletter to get new episode alerts and bonus astrobotany content: https://emmadoughty.substack.com/.

Our Mission Specialist for this episode is Paul Sokoloff, a senior research assistant in botany at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Paul is very involved in cataloguing plant and lichen biodiversity in the Arctic and beyond. He’s also a sci-fi fan and an analog astronaut who has participated in multiple biological expeditions at the Mars Desert Research Station.

Find the show notes for this episode, and much more about growing plants in space, at https://spacebotany.uk/.

Emma the Space Gardener is back with another episode with a non-human Mission Specialist, Google’s “virtual research assistant” NotebookLM. Together they're diving into the historic Blue Origin mission that took astrobotanist Rob Ferl into space.

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Happy new year and welcome to the first episode for 2025! For this episode, Emma the Space Gardener is experimenting with a non-human Mission Specialist, Google's "virtual research assistant" NotebookLM. Together, they're learning about China's recoverable Shijian-19 satellite, and the seeds it took into space.

Sign up for the Gardeners of the Galaxy: MIssion Report newsletter to get new episode alerts and bonus astrobotany content: https://emmadoughty.substack.com/.

Throughout human history, when people have moved around the globe, they’ve taken their plants with them. They’ve carried with them the plants they relied on for food, for health, and for happiness.

But when European colonisers began to transport plants from far flung locations, they ran into a problem - keeping plants alive during long sea voyages.

In this episode, I tell the story of the man who solved it - Dr Nathaniel Ward, inventor of the Wardian case.

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Our Mission Specialist for this episode is Benz Kotzen, a Professor of Landscape Architecture and Nature Based Solutions at the University of Greenwich. He’s here to tell us about his FEEDING MARS project, which showcased a live experiment growing vegetables, herbs and fruits in Martian simulant soils, using fish effluents from an aquaponic system as fertilizer.

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It’s Gardeners of the Galaxy’s fourth birthday! To celebrate this auspicious event, I looked up what would be a suitable fourth anniversary gift. Traditionally, there are two that fit that bill – fruit and flowers. So Ryan and I have baked a lemon cake with strawberry frosting and sugar flower decorations, and I have picked two fun stories from the astrobotany archives to share with you.

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Our Mission Specialist for this episode is the wonderful Borja Barbero Barcenilla, who is talking about what happens to plant telomeres in space. Borja and I had a brilliant chat about his breathtaking research, including an upcoming flight experiment, a special mutant Arabidopsis strain, and the sci-fi experience of putting your plants into a particle accelerator. And if you’ve ever wondered what plant a Spaniard would choose to take into space, well… you won’t want to miss it!

Sign up for the Gardeners of the Galaxy: MIssion Report newsletter to get new episode alerts and bonus astrobotany content: https://emmadoughty.substack.com/.

Our Mission Specialist for this episode is Patrick Grubbs, who recently completed a Professional Science Master's degree in Controlled Environment Agriculture at the University of Arizona. Patrick is one of the people behind the Space Ecology Workshop, an annual virtual symposium on bioregenerative life support, space agriculture, closed ecological systems, and more. He also co-founded The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon, an international non-profit research organization developing closed ecological life support technology and working to democratize space access in underrepresented countries. The Spring Institute is working on some really exciting astrobotany projects, and Patrick is here to tell us about... some of them!

Sign up for the Gardeners of the Galaxy: MIssion Report newsletter to get new episode alerts and bonus astrobotany content: https://emmadoughty.substack.com/.