How Do Astronauts Grow Food In Space?

The development of space gardens like Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) is crucial for providing astronauts with fresh produce during long-duration space missions. These gardens aim to study plant growth in microgravity while adding fresh food to the astronauts' diet and enhancing their well-being in space. The use of plant growth systems in space also has the added benefit of providing astronauts with essential nutrients, such as vitamin C, which may not remain stable in prepackaged form over extended periods.

Understanding plant growth and health in microgravity is essential for long-term space missions, as it will help NASA develop strategies for maintaining sustainable food sources and well-being for astronauts during deep space exploration and potential colonization.

Project Veggie

Veggie, about the size of a carry-on piece of luggage, uses a clay-based growth media and fertilizer-filled "pillows" to distribute water, nutrients, and air around the plant roots in microgravity. A bank of LEDs above the plants produces a spectrum of light suitable for plant growth in the absence of gravity, resulting in a magenta pink glow. Veggie has successfully grown various plants like lettuce, Chinese cabbage, kale, and zinnia flowers, which have been consumed by astronauts on the space station. NASA envisions expanding this system to grow more produce like tomatoes and peppers, which could provide additional health benefits, such as radiation protection, for the astronauts.

Advanced Plant Habitat (APH)

The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) is an enclosed and automated growth chamber on the space station. It uses LEDs and a porous clay substrate with controlled-release fertilizer to deliver water, nutrients, and oxygen to plant roots. With more advanced features than Veggie, APH allows for nighttime imaging with various LED colours, including red, green, blue, white, far red, and infrared. Scientists conduct research on plant growth and development in APH and analyze samples sent back to Earth.

The Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC)

The Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) facility is used to study the effects of space on various organisms, including plants, yeast, microbes, mosses, algae, and cyanobacteria. The BRIC-LED version uses light-emitting diodes to support biology that requires light for food production. Scientists like Dr. Simon Gilroy study the gene expression changes in plants grown in space using BRIC-LED. They manipulate the plant's protein receptors to understand the plants' immune responses to potential threats and gain insights into how space affects their health.