Growing Beyond Earth® (GBE) is a classroom-based citizen science project established in 2015 as a partnership between Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and NASA’s Exploration Research and Technology Programs. It includes a series of plant experiments conducted by students in a Fairchild-designed plant habitat similar to the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on the International Space Station. With experiments currently in progress in more than 350 middle and high schools across the country, GBE provides a steady stream of valuable data to NASA scientists who are developing technologies for growing food crops for long-duration missions into deep space.

At Hutchings Museum Institute, this seven-week research project starts February 2023 and goes through April 2023, followed by an opportunity to present research findings at the GROWING BEYOND EARTH® Student Research Symposium at the end of April. The Hutchings Museum Institute research team is comprised of middle and high school-aged students from the community.

To check out the latest student research, visit @GrowBeyondEarth on Twitter!

Growing Beyond Earth is designed in partnership with NASA’s Exploration Research, Technology Program researchers at Kennedy Space Center, and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden to directly support NASA research on growing plants in space.