CHALLENGER'S LOST LESSONS - ER - NASA

332. What impact would ambient lighting onboard Challengerhave compared to classroom lighting?3. Based on classroom plant growth over seven days, was thehydroponics chamber design adequate to contain the plantvolume produced?4. Do a report on the characteristics of the mung bean. Whywas it a good choice for the Challenger hydroponicsdemonstration?5. Would the hydroponics chamber grow plants in the Shuttle’scargo bay…why or why not? Discuss.6. Finally, examine the STS-118 Educator in Space Missionwhich dealt with the same considerations for building aclassroom hydroponics chamber. What makes it more doableand less complicated than the hydroponics lost lessonproposed for Christa on STS-51L?7. Compare Christa’s Hydroponics Lost Lesson Chamber withthe commercial Plant Growth Chamber carried to the spacestation for the hydroponics lesson planned for students afterSTS-118. How does the commercial chamber [adapted froma ground based chamber for the space station experiment]compare with Christa’s?8. Compare the STS-118 choice of basil seeds with STS-51L’smung beans. Would basil seeds have worked better or worsefor the Challenger Hydroponics Loss Lesson? Why or whynot?FOR TEACHERS ONLY: An actual in space hydroponicsexperiment growing mung beans was conducted on STS-3 so that theChallenger Hydroponics Lost Lesson was partially validated earlier.The class need not know this prior to answering the above questions.However, the following was reported concerning the STS-3experiment: In “Mung bean seeds were grown in a plant growth uniton STS-3. After eight days of microgravity, most of the seedsgerminated and grew as tall as the 1-g standards; a few plantsappeared to become directionally disoriented.”