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Growing Vegetables In Space, NASA Astronauts Tweet Their Lunch

Posted by samzenpus on from the space-salad dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Astronauts on the International Space Station got their first taste of space-grown lettuce today. It took the astronauts about an hour to harvest and prepare the lettuce both plain and with oil and vinegar. The Times reports: "The vegetable experiment had been a long-awaited harvest for the astronauts, who say that the ability to grow and sustain crops in space may someday aid travelers on long space trips. Cultivating crops is seen as a critical step in the path to traveling to Mars, for instance. Before the harvest, the astronauts did what any sensible Earthling with a Wi-Fi connection would do: They celebrated lunch in an exclusive locale by tweeting a picture of the goods."

26 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Lettuce should not be pink by sims+2 · · Score: 1

    I hate to tell you this but the lettuce has gone bad.
    Lettuce is not naturally pink.

    It must have something to do with that space radiation I keep hearing about

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    1. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      You're right. Real space food is B-L-U-E.

    2. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by theIsovist · · Score: 3, Informative

      I imagine you're joking, but for those who don't know - the lettuce in the picture is a shade of pink due to specific wavelengths of lighting that provides the plants with the ideal amount of "solar" energy, while avoiding providing any stressful wavelengths that require the plant to shed heat. In actuality, the plants often look almost black under that light, because they absorb most of it. Under regular sunlight, plants look green because that wavelength is reflected back, unused.

      It may look unnatural, but it's surprisingly efficient.

    3. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Lettuce has almost no nutritional value. They should be experimenting with beans or root crops like carrots.

    4. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      Yep.
      I have seen some of the led grow light setups for sale online i assume that's what they are using.

      However I would have preferred to see a picture of the lettuce under a more natural light as under that pink light it looks a blackish pink as well as being hard to see.

      It looks like one of those black snake fireworks if they were pink.

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    5. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      We have already established the nutritional value of lettuce on Earth. This experiment is to grow it, plus a variety of other dietary favorites, in space.

    6. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Although beans might get an astronaut to move faster in zero gravity from the expanding gas, the smell left behind in the cabin will probably get them cast out of an air lock without a space suit.

    7. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by PRMan · · Score: 1

      Beans in an enclosed air system? You monster!

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      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    8. Re:Lettuce should not be pink by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 2

      Spirulina seems like an obvious choice. It could be grown in tubes external to the station. It would have a side benefit of filtering water, removing waste and providing a supply of oxygen.

  2. Must do what The People want by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    "We grew all the cool stuff of farmers -- I ate lettuce, and kale, and wheat grass, pressed with a $8,000,000 space crusher crank, and asparagus, which we placed into bulbs of water and then drank the water."

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  3. Negative calories by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It took the astronauts about an hour to harvest and prepare the lettuce both plain and with oil and vinegar.

    Sounds like they burned off more calories than they gained in this exercise.

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  4. Day of the Triffids by khr · · Score: 1

    I guess I should check the TV listings to see if any channel is showing "The Day of the Triffids."

    1. Re:Day of the Triffids by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      It's on youtube. /watched it a few weeks ago. I don't know why

  5. We need a bigger station by stackOVFL · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:We need a bigger station by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      No, we just need a greenhouse module for the ISS that will use natural light to grow vegetables. Then they might want to edge into the protein realm. Though it will be a long time before we will be able to have cows in space (cue the trolls!) the vegetable module could raise these:

      http://www.foodnavigator-usa.c...

      I have tried them, and they are remarkably good.

    2. Re:We need a bigger station by stackOVFL · · Score: 1

      Cricket bars eh? hmm I think I'll stick with my forest sized domes on a make believe space ship. They have to drop the sound track though. That just drove me nuts after awhile.

    3. Re:We need a bigger station by grahamsz · · Score: 1

      I thought they were kinda weird and disappointing. The combo of chocolate and flour just didn't seem like the right texture.

      No real issue with insect protein, but i'm not rushing back to the store to get more cricket bars.

    4. Re:We need a bigger station by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      Though it will be a long time before we will be able to have cows in space [...]

      But what about Pigs?

      (It just occurred to me that Disney owns both of these now...)

    5. Re:We need a bigger station by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    6. Re:We need a bigger station by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      it will be a long time before we will be able to have cows in space

      Spherical cows should be OK, they live in a vacuum.

    7. Re:We need a bigger station by loufoque · · Score: 1

      Raising cows is not really the optimal way of synthesizing proteins in a constrained environment.

  6. DANGER Will Robinson! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Consuming GMOs (gravitationally modified organisms) has been shown to cause Autism in space monkeys.

  7. Make sure to pack energizers by dfn5 · · Score: 1

    OK, we've fixed the airlock. Do you need more planters, more nutrients? Whatever you need, you've got it.
    We need new seed.

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  8. Re:Vegetables are for cows. by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

    How can we raise space cattle without space alfalfa? One step at a time, meat lovers. One step at a time.

  9. Rocket? by roesti · · Score: 1

    Did they grow rocket? (groan)

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  10. Vegetables grown in space for years by NewsWatcher · · Score: 1

    The article seems to imply that these are the first ever vegetables grown in space by astronauts, but this isn't true.

    According to NASA's website about the International Space Station "Since 2002, the Lada greenhouse has been used to perform almost continuous plant growth experiments on the station. Fifteen modules containing root media, or root modules, have been launched to the station and 20 separate plant growth experiments have been performed. "

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