Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) have successfully grown a variety of vegetables in space. The vegetables, which were grown in the ISS greenhouse called "Lada," have been successfully harvested and proven safe to eat.
"Growing food to supplement and minimize the food that must be carried to space will be increasingly important on long-duration missions," says Space Dynamics Laboratory engineer Shane Topham. "We also are learning about the psychological benefits of growing plants in space -- something that will become more important as crews travel farther from Earth."
The vegetables grown in the "Lada" greenhouse include radishes, peas and lettuce. Aside from the obvious benefits of providing a good source of nutrition for the astronauts as well as gathering information for the development of space-based food growing techniques, the extra-planetary garden also provides a means of relaxation for the astronauts. Astronauts often have to deal with long and boring hours while on duty in the ISS and growing vegetables can provide a respite from the long hours spent manning the space station and supervising the other experiments being conducted on the station.
The ISS Lada Validating Vegetable Production Unit -Plants Protocols, Procedures and Requirements is an experimental greenhouse where astronauts can control the amount of water and light, two very important elements to growing plants. The experiment was conducted with four major goals in mind. The first goal is to find out whether food grown in space is safe to eat. Secondly, scientists also want to understand the microbiological implications of farming in space. The third goal is to solve the problem of vegetable sanitation after harvesting, and lastly, researchers want to understand how to optimize the growing process to make it worthwhile.
"The idea was to validate in space the results of ground tests, to show that minimizing water usage and salt accumulations would produce healthier plants in space," says Topham. "For years we've used the same method for packing root modules, so this was a comparison study between old and potential improvements and so far we have found a couple of surprising results."
If mankind's dream of exploring space is to come to fruition, a stable and reliable food supply is a must. The experiments on farming edible plants onboard the ISS will provide valuable information about growing food in space, which would be very important in future exploratory manned missions. Since many of these missions can last for months or even years, growing their own food will allow astronauts access to a healthy and balanced diet.
