NASA Inspired Portable Garden - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

Italian design company, DesignLibero has developed a garden appliance inspired by NASA called the ‘Green Wheel’. NASA’s idea in the 1980’s was to grow produce in space with a spinning, circular device to counteract zero-gravity and utilize minerals in water.

30 years later that idea is close to making a debut. Evoking a modern Ferris Wheel, plant roots are inserted into the device, and every hour, circulate around a light source and pass through a water pool at the bottom. At the end of the spinning plant ride, the roots are taken through a water pool that resides beneath the surface and LED lighting.

The idea behind this gardening gadget is to use hydroponics, the process of maintaining plants without soil.

An application for tablets and smartphones allows plant owners to control light intensity and temperatures, and check water levels. This concept makes it possible for city dwellers without a yard to grow plants indoors more efficiently and is touted as eco-friendly, using less power than traditional indoor plant systems.