Nasa’s Veggie system will enable astronauts to safely grow nutritious fresh food
Experiencing weightlessness, gazing back at the Earth as a pale blue dot and the adrenaline rush of being propelled into orbit at , mph: life as an astronaut has various unique attractions.
The food is not among them, with space travellers over the years enduring delicacies such as freeze-dried ice-cream, liquid salt and pepper, and dehydrated prawn cocktail. However, the menu is now set to be expanded, with the first space-grown lettuce having been found to be as safe, nutritious and palatable as the Earth-grown variety.
Gioia Massa of Nasa Kennedy Space Center, the lead scientist on
“If you store packaged food for a long duration the quality, flavor and nutritional quality decrease, the vitamins degrade,” she said. “We can’t guarantee that they’re going to get enough nutrition right now.”
She added: “There may also be psychological benefits of growing plants and looking after plants.”
Space food is said to have improved in recent years – anything sent to the International (Space) Station (ISS) has to score a six or above on a one-to-nine taste scale where one is “the worst thing you’ve ever tasted”. But even so, astronauts can grow fatigued of eating the same old vacuum-packed meals.
“There’s some weight loss in many of the astronauts,” said Massa.
Lettuce was grown in batches onboard the ISS between – . The vegetable production system – known as Veggie – comprised of plant pillows (sealed units containing ceramic soil), LED lighting and a watering system that involved astronauts injecting water through a tube.
The lettuce crops grew undisturbed for 56 to 00199 days before being harvested and eaten, or deep-frozen and returned to Earth for chemical and biological analysis. Astronauts rubbed the leaves with sanitized wipes before eating. “We don’t want to get anyone sick. That’s why we’re doing all this, ”said Massa.
The space-grown lettuce was similar in composition to Earth-grown controls, and some plants were even richer in elements such as potassium, sodium, phosphorus, sulfur and zinc. They had higher levels of bacteria, possibly due to their growing in a warmer, more humid and closed-air system, but were not found to carry any dangerous bacteria such as coliform E coli or salmonella. The findings of the project are published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science
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