Taking care of the plants in your indoor or outdoor garden is not an easy task, as it requires a lot of attention. One must know everything about the plant's specific needs, including the right amount of light, the type of soil, and enough moisture. A proper level of hydration is one of the most essential steps to keep the plants healthy.
This is because too much water can cause root rot, while too little can lead the plant to be dry and droopy. While it is already a major task, imagine taking care of a plant in space. Watering a plant in space brings unique challenges, but NASA astronauts have come up with a very clever technique to ensure their greenery thrives.
Space doesn't have the concept of gravity, unlike our planet. So, to guide the water flow while watering a plant, astronauts use some specially designed methods, helping them grow healthy, as per the NASA Science Editorial Team. While testing this method, many unusual challenges arose as they tried to manage how fluids move.
In 2021, NASA launched an experiment called Plant Water Management, also known as PWM, to find out how capillary hydroponics, a process of growing plants without traditional soil, works at the International Space Station. These PWM systems consist of three test units that include pumps, tubes, valves, and hydroponic channels.
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