Dinner is served. Astronauts on the ISS will try the salad grown in orbit for the first time

So in the future the plantation of plants on the space station may look like

Fresh greens grown under microgravity conditions are officially included in the menu on the International Space Station for the first time . On August 10, 2015, astronauts will try lettuce harvested from the Veggie orbital plantation .

Before eating, astronauts treat the leaves with a citric acid disinfectant. In total, half the crop will go to the kitchen. The second half will be packaged, frozen and sent to Earth for scientific analysis.

The Veg-01 experiment is conducted to study the performance and performance of the stand-alone Veggie module for growing plants. In the future, such modules can become a constant source of food for astronauts and for colonists on other planets, especially on Mars.


Veggie Module The

experiment has been going on for over a year. The first “pads” with lettuce seeds in the module were activated in May 2014. After 33 days, the crop was harvested, and in October 2014 it was sent to Earth for safety analysis.

The second batch of “pillows” was activated on July 8, 2015, and again after 33 days they harvested the second crop, which is now being used for its intended purpose.

The Veggie hardware complex was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp. (ORBITEC) and was tested at the Space Center. Kennedy. The module delivered the SpaceX spacecraft to the ISS in April 2014, along with two sets of “pillows” with zinnia seeds and Romaine lettuce. The module is equipped with a flat plant illumination panel with red, blue and weak green LEDs to stimulate growth and observation. Green was added to make the plants look edible.



“The farther and longer the astronauts are from Earth, the greater the need to grow plants for food, purification of the atmosphere and psychological relief. I think seedling systems will be an important part of any lengthy research mission, ”says Dr. Gioia Massa, a scientist with the Veggie project at the Space Center. Kennedy.