Student-professor collaboration could result in a better-fed
astronaut   The aerospace engineering team was participating in
NASA’s eXploration Habitat academic innovation challenge, known
as XHab, to develop the best practices for growing fresh produce
during deep space missions. The goal is both to sustain
astronauts and to buoy their morale during long months of
isolation.  As her teammates fretted over how to build a robotic
system that could plant seeds, monitor growth, harvest the
plants—and then repeat that cycle indefinitely—Lombardi began to
wonder about the plants themselves. Could they grow a plant that
would meet the particular nutritional needs of an astronaut
taking extended jaunts in space?  At first Lombardi, unsure of
how she’d go about answering the question, assumed it would
remain simply something to ponder. But with the encouragement of
her advisor, she sought out professors in the Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who had the expertise to help
her design an experiment as par