Sep. 1, 2015

Planted, grown and eaten in space. The first results of NASA's “Veggie” experiment are a success, confirming the importance of ASI's work in the sector.

Red romaine lettuce. Tasty, too - sweet, with a hint of rocket, according to astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui, who were the first to try it.
In fact, the first surprising fact about this “tasting” is that it took place 450 km above our heads, in the International Space Station. But that’s not all: the real novelty is that the lettuce was actually planted and grown on the ISS (in a special, small greenhouse called “Veggie”, like the NASA project it is part of), before being picked, cleaned, dressed (only with oil and vinegar) and finally tasted by the two American astronauts and their Japanese colleague.
The eagerly awaited event took place on Monday 10 August and, judging from the images published by the US Space Agency, was greatly enjoyed by the three protagonists. Part of the “harvest” was frozen, to be used for further analysis on Earth: the success of the project is extremely important, because the independent production of food in microgravity is seen as an essential condition for facing long-term stays or journeys in space.

The Italian Space Agency is in the front line in the sector, where they have been working for some time. Delfina Bertolotto, head of the human flight unit at the Italian Space Agency, explained that “Through the national IBIS institute that we have set up, supported by the our country’s unique and extensive experience in inhabited space systems, with current and past studies used to develop independent food production in space, ASI is preparing to take a leading role in the roadmap outlined during the workshop, starting with the short-medium term possibility of designing and proposing a demonstration project on the ISS”.
The specific “Veggie” project was launched more than a year ago, when the first prototype expandable mini-greenhouse Veg-01 arrived on the ISS in April 2014 on board a Dragon capsule. An initial “Made in ISS” lettuce crop was harvested, to be frozen and sent back to Earth for the necessary analyses. Having established that the lettuce was not only edible, but also cleaner and safer than plants grown in normal conditions on Earth, the experiment moved into its next phase, which was successfully concluded with the tasting a few days ago.
In detail, the system developed by NASA researcher Gioia Massa in collaboration with ORBITEC is composed of a sealed growth room lit by special LED lights that emit red, green and blue light frequencies.
The small space greenhouse (around 30x36 cm) has an irrigation system and folding sides that allow it to expand as the plants grow in an inert clay-based substrate used as soil.