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My name is Gioia Massa and I am a plant scientist working at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
I'm currently working on experiments on the International Space Station trying to figure out the best ways to grow different crops
to feed the astronauts. I had a number of wonderful inspirations starting when I was 12 years old.
I had an agriculture class and my agriculture teacher got invited to Kennedy Space Center
and he brought back hours and hours of video about the research going on for growing plants for space
and how we can use biology to support humans in space exploration. I got my love for plants from
my mother and my grandmother and I think that's really given me a lot of the knowledge that I draw on
for work, but also the encouragement and support to do the things that I love to do.
One exciting thing that I got to do as a NASA scientist was to help First Lady Michelle Obama plant the White
House kitchen garden. This was a program that she started in 2016 to get students excited about
growing and eating fresh vegetables. We worked with the White House to grow some of the vegetables
that we were growing on the International Space Station. When we think about all the roles that
plants play on Earth -- providing food and oxygen, and helping to recycle our water, providing fabric
and medicine and shelter and fuel -- all of those roles are also going to be important when we leave Earth.
And almost everybody likes to eat and food is so important and fundamental to our life.
And having that little piece of Earth with you -- that green growing plant -- can be so important.
A lot of the books that I read are science fiction, so I can pull from science fiction and help me
solve some of the problems that I'm working on. I think plants are amazing because we can use them
to bring humans to locations like the Moon or Mars. And for me this is the biggest motivation.
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