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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - In the future, astronauts will use plants to provide food, oxygen, clean water and waste recycling while living on the Moon. Join the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and NASA's K-12 Engineering Design Challenge and design a mini-greenhouse for use by future astronauts living and working on the moon.

Challenger Center is pleased to announce a series of live interactive chats with NASA expert space farmers on October 16th, 23rd, and 30th at 2:00 (ET) giving students and teachers the opportunity to discuss their ideas for growing plants on a future lunar base. Dr. Gary Stutte, John Gruener and Dr. Raymond Wheeler will answer questions such as, When will we return to the Moon? How will the astronauts live and work in reduced gravity? What are the benefits of growing plants on the Moon? The web casts are free and open to the public.

Teachers and students who participate in the design challenge will receive space-flown basil seeds returned by the STS-118 space shuttle Endeavour's Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan (back up to Christa McAuliffe, the first Teacher in Space) for use in their greenhouse designs. In the NASA challenge, K-12 students research, design, build and evaluate lunar plant growth chambers using the space-flown basil seeds. Students participate in the engineering design process, learn how to conduct a scientific experiment and can receive national recognition for their efforts on the Challenger Center web site. To register for the web casts, and learn more about Challenger Center for Space Science Education's network of 50 Challenger Learning Centers across the country, visit

Direct link to webcast participation information

The Challenger Center for Space Science Education was founded in 1986 by the families of the astronauts of the space shuttle Challenger 51-L mission. It is dedicated to the educational spirit of that mission. Challenger Learning Center programs at 50 centers across the country continue the crew's mission of engaging teachers and students in science, mathematics and technology and foster in them an interest to pursue careers in those fields. Over 25,000 teachers and 400,000 students attend workshops and fly simulated missions annually at Challenger Learning Centers. Challenger Center web casts are supported in part by Kidz Online, a federally funded, nonprofit organization.