‘Lettuce grown in space is just as good as on earth’
New York: Researchers have found that the salad crop, red romaine lettuce, grown on board the International Space Station (ISS), is as nutritious as counterparts grown on the Earth, an advance that may help astronauts grow safe, fresh food during space missions.
According to the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, the space-grown lettuce is free of disease-causing microbes and safe to eat, and is at least as nutritious as the Earth-grown
plants.
The researchers, including Christina Khodadad from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in the US, said that the lettuce is
nutritious despite being grown under lower gravity and more intense radiation than on the Earth.
Traditionally, astronauts in space live on processed, pre-packaged space rations such as fruits, nuts, chocolate, shrimp cocktails, peanut butter, chicken, and beef to name a few, they said.
Apart from a welcome diet change, the researchers said, the fresh produce may provide astronauts with additional potassium as well as vitamins K, B1, and C — nutrients that are less abundant in pre-packaged rations, and degrade during longterm storage.
Khodadad and her team believe that growing crops on board may be especially useful on long-distance space missions such as the upcoming Artemis-III missions, scheduled to land humans on the lunar South pole by 2024, and Nasa’s first crewed mission to Mars, planned for the late 2020s.
“The ability to grow food in a sustainable system that is safe for crew consumption will become critical as Nasa moves toward longer missions. Saladtype, leafy greens can be grown and consumed fresh with few resources,” Khodadad said.