Every time I think of those poor astronauts wondering on Earth’s orbit for months, eating their tasteless processed food rations, without a real connection to anything organic, I really feel their pain and the trouble they go through in their mission. Fortunately, NASA just announced a new project shipped to ISS via SpaceX Dragon capsule that could offer fresh food to hundreds of miles away from Earth.
The new system of growing vegetables in space is called VEGGIE and it’s not that conventional greenhouse we instantly think of, but rather a growing chamber that uses LEDs to stimulate the plant’s growth. The project was in development for many years now, but it will be shipped to the International Space Station with the Space-3 resupply mission exactly today!
The experiment was named Veg-01, and it’s an important landmark that will be referenced for years to come. In fact, it could get the world wide record for the largest plant-growing project in space, given the fact that there is not much competition in this field.
The crops that were successfully grown in this space greenhouse include Chinese cabbage, peas, radishes, Swiss chard and lettuce.
The project was created by Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin and it could mean more than green food for astronauts, but it also could mean a new way to grow vegetables in areas where the conditions of life are hostile.
image and article source: www.nasa.gov
