“That’s awesome, tastes good”, astronaut Kjell Lindgren told Nasa – though given the effort it took to produce the food, saying anything else would arguably have been a little rude.
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Before dining on the leafy vegetable, Lindgren first cleaned the lettuce with citric acid-based sanitizing wipes.
“There is evidence that supports fresh foods, such as tomatoes, blueberries and red lettuce are an excellent source of antioxidants”.
Expedition 39 was the first crew to activate the pillows and begin to care for them, with flight engineer Steve Swanson being the main person in charge of the project.
That’s an impressive achievement for mankind, as this red romaine lettuce represents the first kind of food grown in a microgravity environment.
This time, the astronauts have the green light to reap what they sow – to put it in their mouths. Instead, it underwent-and passed-food safety tests back on Earth.
According to ABC News, the produce has come from NASA’s “greenhouse” called Veg-01 experiment, which is where they study how plants can grow in orbit to give astronauts the possibility of growing and making their own meals while on a mission in space.
The seeds are contained in rooting pillows, and were “activated” by Kelly on July 8, NASA said. After 33 days of growth, the plants were harvested and returned to Earth in October 2014.
The Veggie system was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin and uses red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth.
NASA also noted that growing vegetables can be a useful hobby for astronauts who must endure long missions in space, especially now that a possible Mars expedition is close at hand, reported the Mirror.
Until now, ISS astronauts were only able to access a limited supply of fruit and vegetables, NASA Veggie scientist Dr Gioia Massa said. It’s also hoped that adding fresh food to astronauts’ diets will help them to cope with radiation and may even lift their moods.
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It’s not expected that the ISS will get anywhere need self-sufficiency as a result of this experiment, but the point of the effort is to explore how humans might augment food hauled from Earth on longer trips to spots like Mars.
