France 2

Gilles Guillou (17)

City/Region: Vitr‚ Bretagne E-mail: gguillou@worldonline.fr Hobbies: Computing, tennis, cinema, D.I.Y Career: Marketing School: Lycée Bertrand D'Argentré

Adrien Morel (19)

City/Region: Vitr‚ Bretagne E-mail: adrien.morel@voila.fr Hobbies: Fitness, jogging, computing and D.I.Y Career: Agronomy Engineer School: Lycée agricole et horticole La Lande du Breil

Kevin Pouessel (18)

City/Region: Argentré-du-Plessis, Bretagne E-mail: alain.pouessel@wanadoo.fr Hobbies: Swimming, cycling, cinema, D.I.Y. Career: Physician School: Faculté de Medecine de Renne

The Space Garden

Adrien, Gilles and Kevin have long been inspired by the exploration of space and were particularly interested in the MIR space station. The former Soviet space station complex that operated from 1986 as a permanently manned orbiting facility until it was guided back and crashed into Pacific Ocean in March 2001. Pondering the amount of time the cosmonauts and astronauts were spending on the station they considered how the space crews might be more easily provided for in the future by way of food. From this sprang the idea of having vegetable seeds germinate on board MIR station and in general following the growth of plantlets in zero gravity in a mini-greenhouse that they had designed. During the last Franco-Russian mission to the space station MIR, the French astronaut, Jean-Pierre Haigner, was entrusted with the realisation of their experiment. In spite of a totally unexpected rise in temperature, the tomato and radish seeds germinated and some of the plants grew - giving rise to the hope that perhaps one day vegetables might actually propagate in space!