Will space station-to-table be the next big trend in dining? Yesterday NASA published a story on their official website showing lettuce being grown on board the International Space Station.
The technology behind the whole operation is dubbed 'VEGGIE'. Here's the agency's description of the science behind the device:
VEGGIE provides lighting and nutrient supply for plants in the form of a low-cost growth chamber and planting "pillows" -- helping provide nutrients for the root system. It supports a variety of plant species that can be cultivated for educational outreach, fresh food and even recreation for crew members on long-duration missions.
Additionally, more details about the project were shared during an article that NASA published last year:
Veggie is a low-cost plant growth chamber that uses a flat-panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation. Veggie's unique design is collapsible for transport and storage and expandable up to a foot and a half as plants grow inside it.
The VEGGIE experiment began last year when NASA sent the device to space aboard a SpaceX resupply rocket last April. Space.com reported that prior to its journey to the ISS, VEGGIE was able to successfully grow lettuce and radishes in a test environment at the Kennedy Space Center's space life sciences laboratory.
NASA believes that the VEGGIE project can help supply crews during long and distant voyages where resupplying from the Earth may not be an option.
2015 seems to be a banner year for dining in space. This past May, the ISS received the world's first zero gravity espresso coffee machine thanks to a partnership between the Italian Space Agency and Lavazza.
If VEGGIE goes according to plan, astronauts aboard the vessel may soon have some salads to complement their cups of coffee.
