Sending mushrooms to space
The SHINE program has seen enterprising Haileybury students send experiments involving everything from yoghurt, fungi and teeth into outer space.
Right now, somewhere on the International Space Station, there are mushrooms.
They’re not for the astronauts on board to cook and eat for breakfast as they orbit 400km above Earth. These special fungi have been prepared as part of an experiment by Haileybury students who are keen to discover how the fungi will grow and adapt in space.
They are carrying out the experiment in the latest stage of the Swinburne Haileybury International Space Station Experiment (SHINE) program.
The program is now in its sixth year and brings together budding school scientists with astrophysicists from Swinburne University who work together to design, test and build experiments destined for the International Space Station.
More than 40 Haileybury students have so far worked alongside researchers to develop experiments that have explored everything from the nutritional values of space-made yoghurt, the effects of microgravity on tooth decay, and how to grow microgreens in space.
In the latest experiment launched in August, excited Haileybury students watched a rocket payload containing their fungi – Lion’s Mane, Turkey’s Tail and Cordyceps – blast off on board the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of a NASA cargo resupply mission headed to the International Space Station.
The experiment was featured on A Current Affair on Monday 26th August and Haileybury students also feature in a new documentary about the emerging space industry called Fortitude.
“I've been really interested in space for a long while, so I think being able to actually contribute to this investigation — it’s kind of a dream come true. I stayed up until 1.30 in the morning to watch the rocket launch and it was amazing.”Tana (Year 11)
The fungi experiment is being led by Swinburne astrophysicist, Dr Sarah Webb, who is interested in exploring how fungi could support astronaut health for long-duration space missions. She believes mushrooms are not only a potential source of nutrition in space, but their root systems could also be compacted down and be used as building materials.
She envisages a time and place in space when mushroom farms could appear on the surface of the moon or Mars.
“Hopefully one day we'd have a little colony on Mars and potentially all over the galaxy,” agrees Year 11 student, Jessie, who also helped develop the fungi experiment.
Dale Murchie leads the SHINE program at Haileybury and says it attracts dedicated students from across the School who are fascinated by science and space. As part of the program, students also complete micro-units from Swinburne University that deepen their interest in space science.
“Students help design the parameters of experiments for SHINE and we receive the scientific data back from the experiments and they then analyse and learn from that information,” says Dale.
“The mushrooms will be in space for about a month and work is already underway on the next experiment that will launch into space in 2025. That will build on a previous experiment growing microgreens in space. In that experiment, students discovered that a certain type of clover grew better in space than it did on Earth and the next experiment will delve further into why that was the case.”
Dale says the SHINE program encourages students interested in science to seriously think about pursuing a career in the field of space science.
“Students are aware of the gravity of the SHINE project and they realise how fortunate they are to be involved in the program. They are very focused, and they want to know what else is out there in space and to make new discoveries.”Dale Murchie
To find out what happens to those mushrooms currently on the International Space Station, watch this space!
