O
n Earth, vegetarianism and veganism
are on the up and up. In space they’ll
be a necessity: there simply aren’t enough
resources to sustain livestock. So plants it
is – but which crops grow best in the harsh
arena of space?
In early 2018, the first green shoots were
seen in the International Space Station’s
Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) – a growth
chamber the size of a mini-fridge. The
plants, a small batch of dwarf wheat and
Arabidopsis (flowering rockcress), are
automatically tended by a computer-based
system known as PHARMER, which uses 180
sensors to monitor variables such as
temperature, humidity and light levels. Thistechnology complements the ISS’s
Vegetable Production System (known as
‘Veggie’), which is designed to produce
salad ingredients. In 2015, astronauts
sampled the first lettuce grown in space.
The projects haven’t been without problems,
however. Just as on Earth, mould has been a
big issue that’s stopped scientists moving
on to growing more interesting food like
tomatoes. Space gardening is tough, but
these are all useful lessons for our first
cosmic farmers.
Meanwhile, other scientists have been
looking into the possibility of growing plants
on Mars. Researchers from Villanova
University in Pennsylvania have been runningthe Red Thumbs Mars Garden Project. They
simulated the Martian soil by taking dirt
from volcanoes on Earth, and tried growing
a range of crops including kale, garlic and
potatoes. Light levels were carefully
controlled to match those found on a
dimmer planet further from the sun. The kale
grew well, but the clay-like soil was too
dense for the growing potatoes to expand
and thrive. However, a similar experiment at
the International Potato Centre in Peru has
managed to grow potatoes in Mars-like
conditions by using spuds that have been
specially bred to tolerate harsher
environments – offering hope for all future
spacefaring chip-lovers.GROWING FOOD
What will be on the menu?
Space