Pupils in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), recently went beyond the common forms of known space research when they joined their peers from other countries to explore space plant science.

The experiment sponsored by YouthhubAfrica, in collaboration with the American Space Agency, Magnitude, launched the research known as Exo Lab Mission, which brings together Nigerian pupils and others for research, crop planting and monitoring from the International Space station.

In the experiment, students across the globe investigated the effects of microgravity on living things together, virtually.

The students from Government Secondary School (GSS) Garki, FCT, alongside other students worldwide are partaking in the pioneering research with the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS), to monitor and grow red clover plants in the 1G environment of Earth as part of the ground control experiment and compare results to the flight experiment in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station.

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YouthHubAfrica’s programme manager, Olusegun Medupin explained that the programme is called the legume in space.

He added: “The aim of the programme is to get our students interested in science and science-related areas of endeavour. Presently, there is a planting going on in the ISS, they want to know if legume can grow in space, see if they can grow one there.  The same situation is set up in a controlled environment in GSS Garki and we compare the data.  The one  here sends its temperature, humidity and lightening into an online drive and the one in space does same for comparison.

“We are so happy that the school has taken it a bit further than we expected by checking if the crops can be reproduced on earth.

“Only two schools in Africa are participating in this programme. Why most schools cannot easily partake  is the fact that it is expensive. For instance, we purchased the apparatus needed between $2000 and $3000 and it needs to be bought in the US.”

One of the students partaking in the research, 15-year-old,  SS2 pupil of GSS Garki, Nwokedi Munachi explained, “The programme was hosted by Exo Lab. They asked a question, how does gravity affect living things and throughout all the researches that we have been carrying out, we realised that gravity actually affects it because if you notice, the growth on soil is more larger than when it is affected by gravity.”