GEMS
Gas Exchange Measurement System
The Mir program at SDL was officially known as Gas Exchange Measurement System
(GEMS) and was part of an experiment called FBI-2 (Fundamental Biology Investigations
2). GEMS was designed to measure the respiration of plants grown in a small
greenhouse on the Russian Mir Space Station. The 25-year experiment demonstrated
that serial plant propagation in space is possible.
SDL continues to invest in this effort by conducting plant experiments on the
International Space Station (ISS). Working with the Russian Institute of Biomedical
Problems, SDL developed a small, low-cost growth chamber (Lada) that is now
hosted in the Russian segment of the ISS.
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SDL's Space Agriculture Capabilities