Growing plants, doing chores and living without gravity: CSU grad checks in from space

Astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren is sending his best to Fort Collins … all the way from space. 

Lindgren, a Colorado State University graduate, caught up with the Coloradoan from the International Space Station Wednesday morning to discuss his time at CSU and what he’s doing on his current mission.

As mission commander of SpaceX Crew-4, which left Earth on April 27, Lindgren is guiding the four-person team through their time on the International Space Station and researching things like “fundamental physics, combustion fluid dynamics and the effects that weightlessness and spaceflight have on the human body.” 

In doing so, he’s using what he called a “foundational” and “fundamental” experience he gained while at CSU. Lindgren got his master’s degree in cardiovascular physiology from CSU in 1996 and went on to attend medical school at the University of Colorado before becoming an astronaut with NASA.

Previous coverage:Colorado State alum Kjell Lindgren set to lead mission to International Space Station

“My time at Colorado State really represented an opportunity to specifically focus on something that I was very passionate about,” he said. “I was really interested in cardiovascular physiology and, specifically, how the heart and the cardiovascular system work in the weightless environment. And so my time at CSU allowed me to really truly focus on that topic …

"The faculty, the fellow students, the atmosphere there at CSU, were really just phenomenal.”

When asked what he’s working on currently, he said the mission is all about continuing “the extraordinary research and science that has been conducted here on the space station for over 20 years.”

The last time he was at the station in 2015, Lindgren worked on an experiment that grew plant seeds in a “pillow of soil.” This time he’s using hydroponics and aeroponics to grow plants and find ways to get denser crop growth both on Earth and in space, potentially finding a way to provide food on future missions to Mars, he said. 

Conducting research at the space station allows his team to “really leverage (the) incredible environment where the huge force that we experience on the Earth — gravity — is essentially absent,” he said. 

But, despite the depiction of outer space in movies and science fiction, it isn’t all “very glamorous.”

“The truth is that the day to day, the absence of gravity, actually makes things a little bit harder,” Lindgren said with a chuckle. “So using the bathroom and having to do housekeeping on the weekends and trying to not make a mess while we're eating.” 

It’s all part of spaceflight and conducting the research, though, so he said he’s extremely grateful for the opportunity “to see the Earth from this vantage point to be a part of a team that's doing things that are bigger than any one individual.”

Molly Bohannon covers education for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.