In the early-1990s, NASA scientists took on the impossible mission to improve plant growth in outer space. Potato plants, more specifically.
But without proper oxygen, the plants quickly rotted due to a build-up of the toxic gas, ethylene.
NASA-funded researchers got to work to correct the problem and soon developed what became known as the ‘ethylene scrubber.’
Using UV light and titanium dioxide to break down airborne toxic gases, the scrubber was first used successfully by Astronaut Kathryn C. Horton on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1995.
The result: healthy and sustainable plant life in outer space!
This technology would evolve over the years to what we now know as ActivePure Radiant Catalytic Ionization.