NASA Astronauts Will Eat Space-Grown Lettuce For The First Time On

“The crew does get some fresh fruits or vegetables, such as carrots or apples, when a supply ship arrives at the space station”. Astronauts living at the worldwide Space Station are about to take their first bites of space-grown lettuce, in what scientists described as another step toward enabling human missions to Mars.

NASA astronauts on the global Space Station (ISS) have grown the first ever vegetables in space-and are about to eat them.

The romaine lettuce was harvested in an expandable “Veggie” unit, where seedlings from Earth grew from root-mat “pillows” under LED lights. Again, the “pillows” were watered and cared for, for another 33 days before harvesting time. Half of the harvest will be set aside for further analysis, while the other half will go straight into the space veggie-hungry stomachs of the researchers.

NASA sees the development of sustainable food in space as a critical part of its Journey to Mars project, which aims to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

NASA has announced the meal will take place on Monday, when red romaine lettuce grown aboard the ISS will be added to the menu.

The orbiting lab has hosted the space station’s “Veg-01” experiments in growing vegetables in space since May 2014, with the first seeds were activated in the mini greenhouse known as “Veggie”.

The lettuce seeds, which are contained in a rooting “pillow”, were planted on July 8 by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

“Besides having the ability to grow and eat fresh food in space, there also may be a psychological benefit”, said Massa. But instead of putting the lettuce under a tap, the astronauts will use citric acid-based, food-safe sanitizing wipes to clean them.

Growing fresh food can potentially boost the morale and health of astronauts, and also make farther space-travel possible.

The purple/pinkish hue surrounding the plants is the result of a combination of the red and blue lights which by design emit more light than the green LEDs.

“I think that plant systems will become important components of any long-duration exploration scenario”, informed Dr Gioia Massa, payload scientist for Veggie system at Kennedy.