UW Student Excels in NASA Research Program, Represents Wyoming at Regional Symposium

Drea Hineman, a University of Wyoming student from Gillette, recently earned regional recognition for her innovative space-farming research supported by NASA.

 

Hineman, a senior majoring in plant production and protection in the UW Department of Plant Sciences and a Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium Research Fellow, studies sustainable food production in reduced-gravity environments. In other words, she researches farming in space.

 

The Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium sponsors education and research programs in support of NASA missions. Hineman’s fellowship project addresses a key problem astronauts face when cultivating lettuce plants in space: salt accumulation in the soil.

 

Reduced gravity also means reduced drainage. Aboard the International Space Station, water --and salts dissolved in that water -- don’t drain away like they would on Earth. Instead of exiting the growing pod, salt accumulates in the soil, stressing the plants.

 

Starting in July 2025, Hineman designed and executed a series of ongoing experiments examining salt tolerance in lettuce exposed to environmental stressors present in reduced-gravity environments.

 

To mimic water movement under reduced-gravity conditions, she used an automatic sensor-based irrigation system at the Laramie Research and Extension Center greenhouse.

 

Hineman first learned to operate the system as a research apprentice in the lab of JJ Chen, an assistant professor of plant sciences. Chen later became Hineman’s mentor in the NASA fellowship program.

 

“She was working on a specialty crop project in my lab. Then, she started to cultivate her own ideas about salinity that were relevant to the fellowship,” Chen recalls. “This is her own idea, her own research.”

 

The NASA fellowship program is very competitive, Chen adds. Of the 29 undergraduates who applied for the 2025 fellowship, Hineman’s application was ranked first.

 

Hineman presented her research at a regional October event -- dubbed Interplanetary Life -- in Boise, Idaho, organized by the educational nonprofit Spacepoint. The organization’s mission is to raise awareness of and encourage participation in the space industry, says Kyle Averill, Spacepoint’s founder and director.

 

The recent Spacepoint symposium featured the theme of interplanetary life, with the goal of sparking interest in careers related to the space industry. While open to the public, the event was designed primarily for high school students, college students and early-career professionals.

 

Presentations and research posters, including Hineman’s, highlighted “examples of work, research and development going on in the industry, from propulsion to food production … how to get there, how to survive, and how to thrive,” Averill says.

 

As a plant scientist, Hineman brought a unique perspective to the event, introducing some participants to space farming for the first time.

 

That’s just what Spacepoint events are intended to do: Make the space industry accessible to a wider audience by connecting it to their interests on Earth, Averill says.

 

“As the only agriculture major student invited to present at the event, Drea effectively communicated to attendees from Washington, Idaho, Montana and California that students can meaningfully contribute to science and space exploration,” Chen says.

 

Hineman is conducting a second round of trials, where she is investigating whether inoculating lettuce plants with fungi can help mitigate the effects of increased salinity.

 

“I never thought that I'd be capable of this,” Hineman says. “When you think of Wyoming, you don't think, ‘Oh yeah, I can go to college and do a space farming research project’ … But once I found out what I was really interested in, that's when I realized my drive.”

 

To learn more about space-farming research projects conducted in Chen’s lab, email him at jchen20@uwyo.edu. For more information on the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium, go to www.wyomingspacegrant.org.

 

About the UW College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources

 

The University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources serves students and communities through innovative scholarship, research and outreach. Guided by the land-grant principles of discovery and experiential learning, the college facilitates meaningful educational opportunities in the classroom, laboratory and community. The college offers degrees in the departments of agricultural and applied economics, animal science, botany, ecosystem science and management, family and consumer sciences, molecular biology, plant sciences, veterinary sciences, and zoology and physiology. The college also offers degree programs in agricultural communications, microbiology, and ranch management and agricultural leadership. To learn more, visit www.uwyo.edu/uwag or call (307) 766-4133.