00:00El científico de la NASA, Matthew A. Meekins, experto en cultivo de alimentos en el espacio,
00:06investiga cómo la microgravedad impacta el crecimiento y la calidad de las plantas.
00:11Su trabajo busca garantizar la alimentación de futuras misiones a la Luna y Marte,
00:17mientras desarrolla soluciones que también pueden mejorar la agricultura sostenible aquí en la Tierra.
00:30And I look at plants all the time.
00:33I look at them everywhere I go because it's ingrained in me to do so.
00:37But it's a lot of fun, you know, especially when I can fully understand what it is I'm eating.
00:50My name is Dr. Matthew A. Meekins.
00:54My title is Space Crop Production Project Scientist.
01:00I support the science required to ensure that our astronauts have fresh food
01:05during or while exploring environments where fresh food is not available.
01:12For instance, when we go to Mars, we're actually going to ship the food ahead of us.
01:18The food can be on the Martian surface for as long as five years before the astronauts even arrive.
01:23And it's already been scientifically shown that certain nutrients inside the packaged diet degrade over time.
01:32Microgreens have tons of nutrients and can be a supplement for the packaged diet.
01:37Any leafy green crop can be a micrograin.
01:40It's just basically you harvest it sooner.
01:43For instance, this is Garnet Giant mustard microgreens.
01:46These are six days old.
01:50And so the idea is that microgreens can be a crop for space because they grow quick,
01:55but also because it provides an assortment of options for astronauts.
02:01Plants and space crops can also be leveraged as a source of life support.
02:06They do transpire water vapor into the environment.
02:10And so we can actually reclaim that water.
02:13They also are a source of oxygen.
02:16And so at a high enough density, plants can be used to regenerate the atmosphere,
02:23either in a space transit vehicle or a surface habitat.
02:28It's hard to quantify, but there's a psychological benefit of having something green and fresh,
02:35growing in an environment that's harsh and unforgiving.
02:38And I believe that the astronauts could contest to this as well,
02:44is that having a piece of Earth with them on missions helps their psychological well-being
02:50so that it actually contributes to success.
02:55My expertise is light recipes using LEDs.
02:59I study how you can use the color of the light to impact not only the growth of the plant,
03:05but also the shape of the plant, how fast it grows, and even the flavor of the plant.
03:12All of these can be influenced by the ratios of the colors that you provide for it.
03:18The other technology I'm working on is this seed film technology.
03:22And this film is actually dissolvable in water.
03:27And so as soon as this gets wet, it activates the process of germination immediately.
03:32But not only that, but this is a safe way to handle seeds.
03:37You know, when there's no gravity, it keeps them all in one place.
03:40It's also a very good way for storing the seeds.
03:43And then, of course, the deployment on a substrate would be very simple for astronauts to utilize.
03:52When I got my undergrad bachelor's degree in environmental science, I was like, okay, what now?
03:58And it was actually my thesis advisor.
04:01He told me, he said, Matt, you can work at NASA if you want to.
04:07And I was like, really? I'm not trying to be an astronaut.
04:10He was like, you don't have to be.
04:12There's a whole host of other things that support astronauts.
04:16And that actually started my whole NASA journey.
04:19My path that led me to NASA started with my master's degree research and my first NASA grant,
04:26which was with the North Carolina Space Grant Consortium.
04:29When I was working on my PhD, I applied for another grant,
04:32and it sponsored a summer where I could actually choose any NASA center of my choosing
04:38for an internship experience.
04:40And so that summer experience is where I actually met the family at NASA that's in food production.
04:47And that kind of kick-started my role in controlled environment agriculture.
04:52And it was love at first sight.
04:55But my path to NASA was not straight at all.
05:00After the postdoc, actually, NASA did not choose to hire me.
05:03So I actually left for a little bit, went to the private industry sector.
05:07And that's usually the case with a lot of things that are worth obtaining in life.
05:13There are detours.
05:14There are closed doors.
05:15So in due time, the opportunity came open, and I was ready for it, and I took advantage.
05:20Advice that I would give to students who want to work at NASA, you can be cut out for anything
05:29that you have a passion for, something that will make you want to wake up in the morning
05:33when you're, you know, you're tired.
05:36Find something that you like and go after it.
05:39Thank you.
