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Original URL: http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/08/tomorrow-nasa-astronauts-will-finally-eat-fresh-microgravity-grown-veggies/
Tomorrow, NASA astronauts will finally eat fresh, microgravity-grown veggies
On the menu tomorrow, August 10, at the International Space Station, Expedition 44 crew members will do something mankind has never before done—eat "fresh food grown in the microgravity environment of space" while in space.
This weekend NASA announced this small milestone as part of its ongoing plant experiment, Veg-01.The initiative aims to study "the in-orbit function and performance of the plant growth facility and its rooting 'pillows,' which contain the seeds." Monday isn't the first time anyone will study or taste some of the "Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce being grown on the ISS (as Engadget notes, the first batch of Veg-01 crop was sent back for study), but NASA has never before kept the crop in orbit for consumption. The organization notes this ability to create sustainable food is an important ingredient in the organization's long term plans to reach Mars.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @10:22PM
The ISS is just a way of keeping human beings in space. It's flag-pole sitting.
The ISS has been grossly oversold as a scientific research platform for decades. And when pressed, the science that has been touted to have come from it has been misleading on the verge of outright dishonesty [spaceref.com]. Every little hiccup, malfunction, health issue,and burp might lead to experience of some kind, but it isn't valuable research. One of Dan Golden's selling points was that it was going to be such a unique and valuable science platform, industry was going to fall all over itself throwing money at it so that they can do their revolutionary research. That never happened because, as mentioned above, there is almost nothing you can do on orbit that you can't do on Earth. Gravity is so weak that it doesn't play a significant effect in almost anything. When NASA has to fill their science experiment bays with experiments from undergraduates and high schoolers, that's a pretty good sign that they can't find any significant science to do.
The ISS is a multi-billion dollar boondoggle that primarily serves as a "feel good" "international" partnership. I would be perfectly content continuing it as long as they are honest about it and move it out from under NASA, thus freeing their budget to do real research. They should make the ISS its own budget item under its own management structure.
All the other big science experiments, things like Hubble, major spacecraft missions, the NIF, they cost a lot of money, but you know why you are spending that money. You're throwing it at fusion research, or astronomy/astrophysics, or planetary science. These missions were planned with science goals up front. The ISS was a "build it and they will come" approach driven by an insecure desire that we not lose our prestige of having someone in orbit.