NASA plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts. Fresh food, such as vegetables, provide essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable sustainable deep space pioneering. (Photo : NASA)
The crew aboard the International Space Station are now growing some samples of fresh vegetables inside the orbiting laboratory, marking the first time of vegetable cultivation in space. Specifically, red romaine lettuce called "Outredgeous" will be tested on Monday, August 10, by the astronauts according to NASA.
In preparation for the consumption of these leafy greens, the astronauts will clean them using citric acid based sanitation wipes that are safe for food where they will eat half of the vegetables. The other half will be packed and frozen, storing them at the station until it can be transported back to Earth for further analysis.
NASA believes that the development of this "Veggie" technology used on the ISS can provide future crew a sustainable source of food supply. This particular Veggie unit includes a flat panel light bank where red, blue and green LEDs were used to grow plants under the observation of the crew.
According to Ray Wheeler who is a plant physiologist from the NASA Kennedy Space Center, when fresh food is readily available to eat by astronauts in space, this could have a major positive impact for people's moods and also provide protection from space radiation.
Since the space agency is already preparing for longer manned spaceflight especially the first steps to Martian colonization, scientists are now experimenting with new ways such as the "Veggie" program to become a major source of food for astronauts. This technology can be also used for recreation gardening projects in deep space missions in the future.
Last April 2014, the Veggie system and two sets of pillows that contain romaine seeds and zinnias were delivered to the space station during the third cargo resupply mission from SpaceX. Upon rooting the pillows, astronomers cultivated the plants for a period of 33 days and then harvested them.
