A key challenge in space exploration is ensuring astronauts have enough food to get through long missions. Storage is limited, supplies eventually expire and resupply shipments are costly and aren’t always an option. This is where space farming comes in! 🌱🚀

Space farming is a self-sustained approach that allows crew members to grow fresh food without the need for restocking. It’s not without its own problems, even simple tasks like watering crops can be tricky in microgravity!

The international space station currently houses 3 specialist growing modules that control factors like temperature, light, and carbon dioxide. Research is continually being carried out and all data gets sent back to teams on the ground along with frozen samples for further study.

It’s still early days and will be quite some time before crew members can grow entire meals, but for now they’re able to liven up prepackaged food with fresh produce like radishes and peppers. That might not sound like much but it can be a really big deal when meal choices are so limited! A big bonus is that crew members have reported a therapeutic affect from tending to the plants which also provide a much needed link to home 🌎

Plants successfully grown in space so far include bok choy, lettuce, wheat, peppers, radishes, Zinnia flowers, and many more!

📸 Image credit: NASA Johnson, Flickr.