Agnirva Space Premier League - Expedition #31653: How Does Rot Happen in Space? Exploring Vegetable Decay in Microgravity

On Earth, when you leave vegetable scraps in your compost bin, you know they’ll start to rot. Microorganisms like bacteria and fungi get to work, breaking down the plant matter in a natural recycling process. But what happens to this familiar process when gravity isn’t pulling everything down? That’s exactly what students from the Ort-Tivon School in Israel wanted to find out.

This student-led project, conducted on the International Space Station (ISS), was part of an educational initiative to explore scientific questions in space. The experiment aimed to determine how microgravity affects the rate of decay of vegetable matter. Working with the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology in the U.S., the students designed a container with vegetable samples and monitored how decay progressed during Expeditions 39/40 and 41/42.

Decay is largely a microbial process. It involves the action of living organisms on dead plant material. On Earth, gravity plays a subtle but crucial role in how these microorganisms move and interact. In microgravity, those natural patterns change. Without gravity-driven convection, heat and gases may not move in the same way, which could affect how microbes grow and consume organic matter.

The students hypothesized that the decay rate might slow down in space. Their observations revealed that while decay still occurred, the process behaved differently than on Earth. This has implications for space travel, especially long-term missions, where waste management and recycling are essential. Understanding decay in microgravity could help design better life support systems or even support closed-loop agriculture on Mars.

This experiment not only contributed to scientific knowledge but also inspired future scientists by giving them hands-on experience in designing and executing real research in space. Projects like this highlight the importance of STEM education and the global nature of space exploration.

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