Associate Professor Manabu Sugimoto, Ph.D. of the Okayama University Institute of Plant Science and Resources, who was the Japanese coordinator in the international space educational experiment of the Russian Bion-M1 mission, gave sunflower seeds that had traveled in space to Oshima Junior High School in Kasaoka City.
In the experiment, sunflower seeds readied by elementary and junior high school students of Kasaoka and Asakuchi were placed on the Russian unmanned space capsule Bion-M1 and placed in orbit for one month. The seeds will be cultivated after their return to see if the environment of space has any effect on their viability or growth.
Associate Professor Sugimoto spoke to the students of Oshima Junior High School on the goals of the experiment and the significance of scientific research into plants in space, and handed over to a representative from the students approximately 70 sunflower seeds still sealed after their return from space. The students immediately placed the seeds into pots and watered them.
Additional schools involved are Chuo Elementary School of Kasaoka, and Yorishima Elementary School of Asakuchi. More sunflower seeds will be given to Yorishima Elementary School on the 11th. The Bion-M1 space capsule was sent up into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 19 and returned to Earth after one month on May 19.