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.
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Scientists have harvested the first vegetables grown in the EDEN-ISS greenhouse at Germany's Neumeyer-Station III in Antarctica. 3.6 kg of salad greens, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes were grown inside the greenhouse, which uses a closed water cycle with no soil.
An air management system controls the temperature and humidity, removes contaminants (such as ethylene, microbes, and viruses) and regulates the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide to optimize growth. Water-cooled LEDs deliver lighting with a spectrum that is 15% blue (400-500 nm), 10% green (500-600 nm), ~75% red (600-700 nm), and ~2% far-red (700-750 nm). A nutrient delivery system stores stock solutions, acids/bases, deionized water, and nutrient solution, and pumps them into the cultivation system as needed.
The final crop yield for the shipping container sized facility is estimated to be 4.25 kg per week (250g each of lettuce, chard, rugula, and spinach, 1 kg of tomatoes, 600g of sweet peppers, 1 kg of cucumbers, 250g of radishes, 100g of strawberries, and 300g of herbs). The purpose of the project is to test food production technologies that could be used on the International Space System, Moon, Mars missions, etc. It will also provide fresh food supplementation year-round for the crew of Neumeyer-Station III (estimated population of 9 in the winter, 50 in the summer).
EDEN-ISS has some advantages (open, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.60431) (DX) over the ISS's current Veggie system, including a higher available growth surface, longer possible production cycle using complete nutrient solution circulation, better reliability and safety, and the ability to grow taller crops (up to 60 cm). The system is designed to be flown to the ISS as a payload of EDR II experimental inserts.
Related: Tomorrow, NASA Astronauts Will Finally Eat Fresh, Microgravity-Grown Veggies
SpaceX Launches CRS-14 Resupply Mission to the ISS (carried the competing Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Monday August 10 2015, @01:52PM
Sprigs In Spaaaaaaaceeeeee!
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by VLM on Monday August 10 2015, @02:02PM
but NASA has never before kept the crop in orbit for consumption
Decriminalization of weed on the ISS might help NASA's budget issues, encourage space tourism... That and brewing.
Turning the ISS into a sports brew pub for tourists might create some revenue.
I was recently reading a popular science-ish book from the 80s and it was a blast from the past to see how back then "everybody" thought that protein crystallization and exotic metallurgy was the secret to space station revenue. I'm not sure if there is any popular mantra for ISS revenue today, but if there isn't I propose my suggestions above.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @03:17PM
The dirty little secret about the ISS is that it turns out there is scientifically very little you can do on orbit that can't be done on the Earth.
We'll, there are a few exceptions [youtube.com].
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday August 10 2015, @05:02PM
Every little hiccup, malfunction, health issue, and burp leads to valuable research and experience. As a staging area to learn about living in space, the effects of living in space, staying alive in space, etc is a immensely rich opportunity to learn.
The thing the ISS hasn't done, so far, is come up with any processes that amount to unobtainium on earth, with such highly desirable properties that corporations would fund stations just to get to get their hands on it. Its not really that surprising that we haven't come up with something like this up there.
(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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @04:30PM
Every little hiccup, malfunction, health issue, and burp leads to valuable research and experience.
What we learn from the ISS is now in "diminishing returns and relevance". We should be building space stations with artificial gravity[1]. Then only does the research start to become more valuable.
It's stupid to try to keep humans in weightless conditions for long periods of time - that path is a dead end. So most of the results from that would be mostly irrelevant in the long run, only relevant in some corner/niche cases.
It's also stupid to assume that people can cope with Mars/Moon "g" long term till we actually build a space station to test that - and that requires a space station with artificial gravity.
As far as I'm concerned the most useful experiment the ISIS ever did was space tourism. And NASA objected to that at first: https://web.archive.org/web/20001109081900/http://space.com/news/spacestation/mir_tour_iss_001101.html [archive.org]
I don't have much confidence in NASA doing really valuable research nowadays. The NASA today is the NASA that keeps wasting resources on human isolation research when all they could do is just ask the nuclear submariners. And the same NASA that talks of going to Mars before building space stations with artificial gravity and decent radiation shielding.
[1] If you're one of those who thinks artificial gravity is SciFi and ridiculous, please shut up: http://www.artificial-gravity.com/JANNAF-2005-Sorensen.pdf [artificial-gravity.com]
http://www.science20.com/robert_inventor/crew_tether_spin_for_artificial_gravity_on_way_to_iss_stunning_new_videos_space_show_webinar_sunday-137070 [science20.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 10 2015, @04:03PM
i suppose the carrots grow fat and short in space?
beans look like apples, because gravity doesn't pull 'em long?
trees on/around high gravity planets like jupiter would supply super-strength wood,
unbreakable chopsticks, rival titanium in the aerospace industry and have 10x times
the energy density as firewood?
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Monday August 10 2015, @08:06PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 3, Funny) by zafiro17 on Monday August 10 2015, @08:28PM
Anyone who's traveled overseas knows that every veggie you eat brings the risk of gastrointestinal ... er, distress[1]. Wishing these guys luck: I can think of lots of things that must be awesome in zero Gs. Diarrhea is not one of them.
[1] OK, unfair comparison. In the 3rd world, pesticides and poor sanitation are usually the cause. These astronauts ought to be fine. But if they're not, it's science time!
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey