REAL LIFE NEWS: LETTUCE… IN… SPAAAAACE!
by Hazed
The crew on the ISS have just eaten some salad. What’s remarkable about it, is that the lettuce was grown on board the station, making it the very first space crop.
The seeds of a red romaine lettuce were planted on July 8 by astronaut Scott Kelly. They spent 33 days growing inside a vegetable growth module called Veg-01, a light bank that includes red, green and blue LEDs to simulate the light needed for photosynthesis.
Scott and fellow astronaut Kimiya Yui were first to sample the lettuce, and the first source link below includes a video of their comments. The second link goes into more detail about how the lettuce was grown.
The significance of this small batch of salad is a step towards the systems for producing food in a renewable way that we’ll need for long missions or for a permanent base on Mars. After all, Chez Diesel hasn’t opened its doors yet.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/iss_space_salad/
http://gizmodo.com/astronauts-will-eat-space-lettuce-for-the-first-time-ne-1722798340