UF professor making history in space

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Published  August 29, 2024 5:32pm EDT
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UF professor making history in space

FOX 13's Craig Patrick reports.

TAMPA - A University of Florida professor just made history in space. 

Dr. Rob Ferl blasted off on a Blue Origin rocket Thursday morning, becoming the first NASA-funded academic researcher to do his own experiments in space. 

Ferl is a distinguished professor in UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. He also leads UF’s Astraeus Space Institute. Part of his work involves figuring out how to grow plants in space and on the moon as NASA develops plans for a permanent moon colony. 

To that end, Ferl and his team have already sprouted seeds in lunar soil that Apollo astronauts collected and brought back to earth. 

Now they're working on ways to alter plants to grow on the moon or in space, and this requires knowing how plants and other biological organisms are affected as they go into space.  

Ferl and his colleague, UF Professor Anna-Lisa Paul, prepared the experiments for the space flight in tubes that will be analyzed at university labs in Gainesville. 

UF’s experiments on the Blue Origin flight will not only help scientists develop plants that can be harvested beyond earth, but also help us understand how the transition from Earth to space affects human biology. 

"All you have to do is imagine what you think going to space would be like. Imagine it. Think about it deeply and then try to imagine that being ten times better," said Ferl. "In terms of getting things done, we did a series of experiments that are both technological transfer and trying to understand what biology does when it leaves the surface of the Earth, and all were very successful today. And what we hope to learn from that is a lot about the things that happen that make our biology thrive in space. So, for the first time we’ll be able to analyze those first few minutes into space."

A NASA grant funded the UF project.  

"What a glorious day for the University of Florida, Rob, Anna-Lisa, and their team," said Interim UF President Kent Fuchs. "UF is tremendously proud to pioneer a new era of space exploration where academics conduct their own research in space. Our partnership with Blue Origin and NASA is an important first for university scientists around the world. Discoveries lie ahead." 

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