Astronauts Grow Radishes in a Microfarm on the International Space Station

From a report: The thought of eating "astronaut food" brings to mind a kind of instant food that is far from "farm to table." However, recent experiments aboard the ISS are improving our understanding of how to bring the farm directly into space itself. Astronauts just ran a Veg-PONDS 02 experiment on the International Space Station. The experiment used food that was cultivated in space. Potential cultivations could include tomatoes or other plants, NASA says. On November 30th, Kate Rubins took about 6 packs of radishes from the lab and stored them in a refrigerated unit after gathering them up — "freshly grown in space. The process opens new doors for microgravity food processing to enable future long-term moon and Mars missions. The radish sprouts will be sent back to Earth early next year on SpaceX's 22nd Commercial Resupply Services mission, NASA announced... "There comes a point where you have longer and longer duration missions, and you reach a cost-benefit point where it makes sense to grow your own food," said chief scientist of NASA's Utilization and Life Sciences Office at the Kennedy Space Center Howard Levine in a statement. The APH Chamber uses LED lights to improve plant growth, while an automated control system provides water to the plant. 180 sensors track plant growth and monitoring the temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels.

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