NASA publishes log of Anil Menon’s plant-cell experiment

NASA’s October 21, 2026 station log records Anil Menon processing green algae and cultured tobacco-cell samples aboard the International Space Station. The work took place in the Kibo laboratory for the Plant Cell Division investigation, which examines plant growth processes in microgravity.

Menon is an Indian-origin NASA astronaut. The agency’s biography states that he was born and raised in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants.

NASA’s published research background identifies Plant Cell Division as an investigation from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. It examines how microgravity affects cell division in green algae and a strain of cultured tobacco cells. JAXA’s Junya Kirima explained that the tobacco cells divide frequently, making the process easy to observe.

The research background describes better methods for growing food plants in space, including on the Moon and Mars, as a possible application of understanding cell division. That is a research objective rather than a result from Menon’s October 21 work.

The station log is the sole source for the sample-processing task; independent confirmation was unavailable at publication. It reports no experimental findings or demonstrated improvement in crop growth.