A Study of the Germination of Green Beans in Different Gravity Conditions

Abstract

The literature suggests that plants are able to grow in the absence of gravity, and NASA has a plan to cultivate plants on Mars. Thus, the aim of this research was to study the germination and growth of green beans at differing levels of gravity from 0.5G to 3G. Pseudo gravity has been used to study the growth and germination of the green beans under different gravity levels. The results showed that under high gravity the green beans were able to germinate but were unable to grow. Under low gravity the green beans were able to both germinate and grow. However, due to the limitations of the authors’ apparatus, the behavior of green beans under lower gravity levels than 0.5G could not be investigated. Finite element modeling was used to study the stems of the green beans at different gravity levels. The result from the FEM is correlated with the experiment but it did not take the angle from the horizontal line as the actual germination of the green beans. However, it shows that under high gravity the stems of the bean sprouts were not able to resist the force of gravity. Thus, the plants might be unable to germinate and grow on new planets of larger size.