Space-grown veggies, coming soon

Astronauts on the International Space Station have made history of being the first humans to eat space-grown vegetables. The Crew members had earlier sampled the Red Romaine lettuce harvested in October 2014.

The plant experiment Veg-01, uses NASA rooting pillows which contain the seeds. After 33 days of incubation, the plants were harvested and returned to Earth in October 2014. The leafy greens were cleaned and underwent a thorough food safety analysis at the Kennedy Space Center. A second set of Veg-01 plant “pillows” was successfully activated and harvested on 8th July.

NASA sees it a critical part to developing sustainable food in space to help with their challenges in long-duration exploration missions into the solar system. It is planning to send humans to Mars in 2030s.