Getting food and supplies up to the International Space Station (ISS) is quite an endeavor, requiring
tens of thousands of dollars as well as extremely precise planning. NASA is hoping to ease the process, as well as provide fresh food to astronauts, by growing crops on the ISS. The experiment marks the next step in NASA's
VEGGIE program, an attempt to set up a sustainable food system aboard the station. While some astronauts have
successfully grown plants on the ISS, this marks the first time that NASA will attempt to grow vegetables in space for human consumption.
Currently, most astronaut food is less than appetizing. Fresh vegetables arrive infrequently on the expensive-to-run shuttles that travel between Earth and the station, and they are
eaten immediately. For this first attempt, NASA will be growing romaine lettuce in custom Kevlar planters, using pink LEDs as a light source. While past interstellar growing experiments have required
cumbersome, inefficient systems, this new process is one that NASA thinks could scale up easily, even in the confines of the ISS. The latest system is one that NASA has been testing in terrestrial labs for some time.
The experiment's implication stretch all the way back down to Earth. With the effects of climate change already appearing, many scientists fear that farming on earth is not an infinitely sustainable prospect. The ability to grow plants in space could provide a back-up should things go really sour here on the blue planet. Worth noting, the romaine lettuce grown in this experiment will be frozen and sent back to NASA's terrestrial labs for analysis before they can be consumed, so the astronauts won't be harvesting a feast just yet.
What do you think, are space grown veggies just too sci-fi to be appetizing, or will leaving Earth's problems behind make for an even better salad? Let us know what you think via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Source:
Modern Farmer,
Photo Credit (NASA via Flickr)
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