Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) will become the first people to eat fresh vegetables grown in space after producing red Romaine lettuce in a specialist growing system.
The technology, named Veggie, is part of NASA’s plant experiment – Veg-01 – which is studying plant growth in space, in order to provide future astronauts with a sustainable food source.
NASA said that the astronauts will only eat half of the harvest while the rest will be packaged and frozen until it be can sent to Earth for scientific analysis, the Telegraph reported.
Astronaut Kjell Lindgren tweeted a photo of the lettuce growing on the space station, with the caption: “Almost sad to eat these tomorrow. Almost”.
NASA Veggie scientist Dr Gioia Massa said that, until recently, astronauts aboard the ISS only had access to a limited supply of fresh produce: 'The crew does get some fresh fruits or vegetables, such as carrots or apples, when a supply ship arrives at the space station. But the quantity is limited and must be consumed quickly.'
'The farther and longer humans go away from earth, the greater the need to be able to grow plants for food, atmosphere recycling and psychological benefits. I think that plant systems will become important components of any long-duration exploration scenario,” she added.
The Veggie growing system provides lighting and nutrient supply for plants in the form of a growth chamber and planting 'pillows'. It can be used for a variety of plant species, and results may be able to help urban agriculture systems on earth by helping them manage water supply more efficiently.
'We have upcoming experiments that will look at the impacts of light quality on crop yield, nutrition and flavor, both on Earth and in space,” Massa added.
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