Scientists send seeds to space in hopes of learning how to grow with less water – WISN Milwaukee

Parts of southeastern Wisconsin remain in an extreme drought. Conditions can be a concern for farming. But the University of Wisconsin-Madison is trying to solve the problem with an out-of-this-world experiment. Cotton seeds traveled to the International Space Station earlier this month for an experiment called "Targeting Improved Cotton Through Orbital Cultivation," or "tic toc" for short."The question we are asking is 'How does gravity make cotton roots grow?' and the experiment is to remove gravity and the only place you'll get to do that is on the space station," Dr. Simon Gilroy said.The main goal is to find a way to produce cotton using less water to help the environment."Cotton has a big environmental footprint, the best way to put that in context is to grow enough cotton to make a single t-shirt is somewhere around 700 gallons of irrigation water," Gilroy said.The findings could be beneficial for Wisconsin crops in the future."We are focused on cotton at the moment though the traits how deep the roots get, how big the volume they explore those are important for all crops," Gilroy said.Scientists are also looking at the plant's genetics and its drought intolerance."In the future, of course we are hoping to answer those same kinds of questions with space flight data on things like Wisconsin crops like corn and soybean," Gilroy said.The plants are expected to make it back July 7 to the Kennedy Space Station where they will continue to study them.

Parts of southeastern Wisconsin remain in an extreme drought.

Conditions can be a concern for farming.

But the University of Wisconsin-Madison is trying to solve the problem with an out-of-this-world experiment.

Cotton seeds traveled to the International Space Station earlier this month for an experiment called "Targeting Improved Cotton Through Orbital Cultivation," or "tic toc" for short.

"The question we are asking is 'How does gravity make cotton roots grow?' and the experiment is to remove gravity and the only place you'll get to do that is on the space station," Dr. Simon Gilroy said.

The main goal is to find a way to produce cotton using less water to help the environment.

"Cotton has a big environmental footprint, the best way to put that in context is to grow enough cotton to make a single t-shirt is somewhere around 700 gallons of irrigation water," Gilroy said.

The findings could be beneficial for Wisconsin crops in the future.

"We are focused on cotton at the moment though the traits how deep the roots get, how big the volume they explore those are important for all crops," Gilroy said.

Scientists are also looking at the plant's genetics and its drought intolerance.

"In the future, of course we are hoping to answer those same kinds of questions with space flight data on things like Wisconsin crops like corn and soybean," Gilroy said.

The plants are expected to make it back July 7 to the Kennedy Space Station where they will continue to study them.

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Scientists send seeds to space in hopes of learning how to grow with less water - WISN Milwaukee