NASA proves growing plants in space is key to healthy astronaut life on Mars missions and deep space travel
growing plants in space
once sounded like a far-off dream, but modern scientific advancements have brought it closer to reality. This achievement is not only about enjoying the sight of greenery in a weightless environment but also about ensuring survival, maintaining
astronaut mental health
, and supporting future deep space missions.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Fresh vegetables in space could reduce dependency on pre-packaged food, recycle air and water, and offer emotional comfort during long-duration journeys to Mars or beyond. These experiments lay the groundwork for
sustainable life-support systems
essential for
deep space exploration
.
Why growing plants in space is important
Space travel involves extreme isolation and limited resources. Currently, astronauts rely on vacuum-packed and freeze-dried meals, which lack freshness and can lose nutritional value over time.
Growing plants on spacecraft or space stations offers multiple benefits:
Nutritional value: Fresh vegetables retain essential vitamins and minerals lost during food processing.
Psychological comfort: Caring for plants and witnessing natural growth provides a sense of home and stress relief
Life-support role: Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and can help purify water, contributing to a closed-loop life-support system.
NASA's Veggie project overcomes challenges to bloom a Zinnia aboard the ISS
In 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly posted an image of a blooming zinnia aboard the International Space Station (ISS), calling it the 'first flower grown in space.' This was a breakthrough moment as it symbolized humanity's ability to grow complex plants beyond Earth. However, the journey to that bloom wasn't easy. The zinnias initially faced mold growth and were on the verge of dying.
By following modified care instructions from NASA scientists and Kelly's careful attention—his 'green thumb'—the plants recovered and successfully bloomed. This experiment was part of NASA's Veggie project, which focuses on growing food in microgravity.
Earlier attempts at growing flowers in space
While Kelly's zinnias were celebrated worldwide, they were not technically the first flowers grown in space. There have been several earlier milestones:
2012
– Don Pettit's sunflower experiment: Astronaut Don Pettit cultivated a sunflower aboard the ISS using improvised containers and documented its journey in his blog Diary of a Space Zucchini.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
1990s
– Wheat growth on Mir Station: Russian cosmonauts grew dwarf wheat aboard the Mir space station, demonstrating flowering in microgravity conditions.
1982
– Arabidopsis on Salyut 7: The Soviet crew successfully grew Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant, which Guinness World Records recognizes as the first plant to bloom and produce seeds in space.
1966
– Cosmos 110 Bean experiment: Even earlier, the uncrewed Soviet Cosmos 110 mission germinated and bloomed beans, which astonishingly grew almost twice as fast as on Earth.
NASA's Veggie experiment: Pioneering growing plants in space
NASA's Veggie experiment was developed to explore
food production in space
for long-duration missions. Initially, it focused on lettuce, later expanding to zinnias and eventually targeting tomatoes and other crops. Growing food in orbit is not just about nutrition but also about sustainability, reducing dependence on supply missions from Earth. In the future,
space farming systems
could become standard on missions to Mars or permanent lunar bases, providing astronauts with fresh food, cleaner air, and improved psychological well-being.
Also Read |
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
21 minutes ago
- India Today
Chandrayaan-2 captures crashed Athena lander on Moon in never-before-seen pics
New high-resolution images from India's Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter have provided crucial new insights into the crash landing of Intuitive Machines' IM-2 Athena lander on the Moon, sharpening our understanding of the mission's final moments and unfinished Athena mission, the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines' second attempt to deliver Nasa science instruments near the lunar south pole touched down on March 6, 2025, in the rugged and shadowy terrain of Mons Mouton. Athena lander seen on the Moon by Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. (Photo: Isro/C. Tungathurthi) advertisementWhile initial mission updates from Intuitive Machines confirmed the spacecraft had reached the Moon's surface, follow-up analysis revealed it had landed on its side inside a shallow crater, roughly 250 meters from its intended target. The sideways orientation left the solar panels facing away from sunlight, and the antenna was partially blocked, cutting off communications less than 13 hours freshly unearthed imagery from Chandrayaan-2's Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC), taken mere hours after Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LROC) first spotted the stricken lander, offers unmatched detail and new images were shared to by independent German-based Indian researcher Chandra Tungathurthi, who found them in the Chandrayaan-2 data archives, further demonstrating the growing role of citizen scientists in planetary discovery. Chandrayaan-2 OHRC close-up of IM-2 Athena's landing site. (Photo: Isro/C. Tungathurthi) WHAT DO THEY REVEAL?The images, captured on March 7, reveal not only Athena's resting place in the crater but also a series of distinct, annotated drag marks in the lunar regolith trailing away from the spacecraft's patterns, streaks and gouges in the powdery soil provide clear visual evidence of a lateral, low-angle impact: Athena did not come to rest gently, but rather, slid or dragged after initial contact with the supports expert assessments, echoed by both Nasa and Intuitive Machines, that the lander suffered a loss of accurate altitude information during descent, probably due to persistent issues with its laser altimeter and difficulties navigating the stark polar shadows. Distinctive Without reliable altitude data, Athena tipped or skidded, failing to achieve a vertical touchdown and rolling onto its makes these Chandrayaan-2 images exceptional is not just their clarity, owing to the OHRC's remarkable 0.25-meter resolution, but the fact that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has yet to officially release incident, mirroring the IM-1 Odysseus lander's fate last year, shows both the risks and progress in commercial lunar Athena's tumble spelt a premature end for its ambitious science package, the data returned, and the subsequent images from Chandrayaan-2 point to the technical hurdles and unexpected lessons that define the new era of Moon missions.- EndsMust Watch
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Trump moves to shut down NASA missions that measure carbon dioxide and plant health
The Trump administration is moving to shut down two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and plant health, potentially shutting off an important source of data for scientists, policymakers and farmers. U.S. President Donald Trump's budget request for fiscal year 2026 includes no money for the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which can precisely show where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed and how well crops are growing. NASA said in an emailed statement on Wednesday (August 6) that the missions were "beyond their prime mission" and being terminated "to align with the President's agenda and budget priorities". But the missions — a free-flying satellite launched in 2014 and an instrument attached to the International Space Station in 2019 that include technology used in the Hubble Space Telescope — still are more sensitive and accurate than any other systems in the world, operating or planned, and a "national asset" that should be saved, said David Crisp, a retired NASA scientist who led their development. They helped scientists discover, for example, that the Amazon rain forest emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, while boreal forests in Canada, Russia and places where permafrost is melting absorb more than they emit, Mr. Crisp said. They also can detect the "glow" of photosynthesis in plants, which helps monitor drought and predict food shortages that can lead to civil unrest and famine, he said. "This is really critical," Mr. Crisp said. "We are learning so much about this rapidly-changing planet." The decision to end the missions is "extremely shortsighted", said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan. "The observations provided by these satellites ... (are) critical for managing growing climate change impacts around the planet, including in the U.S.," he said. Looking to Congress Mr. Crisp and others hope Congress will vote to preserve funding for the missions, which are funded through the fiscal year that ends on September 30. A bill in the House closely aligns with the president's request and would eliminate the missions, while a Senate version preserves them. But with Congress in recess, it is unclear whether a budget will be adopted before the new fiscal year that begins on October 1. If it does not, Congress could adopt a resolution to continue current funding until a budget is passed, though some lawmakers fear the Trump administration could try to delay or withhold that money. Congressional Democrats warned acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy last month that it would be illegal to terminate missions or impound funds already appropriated by Congress. Experts said the administration's move to eliminate funding aligns with other actions to cut or bury climate science. "The principle seems to be that if we stop measuring climate change, it will just disappear from the American consciousness," said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann. Backup plan Mr. Crisp and others are also trying to put together a coalition of outside partners — including those from Japan and Europe — that could fund and operate the instrument attached to the space station. NASA said it will accept outside proposals through August 29. The free-flying satellite, though, is at risk of being brought down, meaning it would burn up in the atmosphere. National Public Radio first reported that NASA employees were making plans to end the missions. Mr. Crisp said advocates are hoping NASA also allows outside control of that satellite, which covers more of the globe, but there are legal hurdles to overcome because it would mean giving control of a U.S. satellite to a group that could include foreign partners. "We are going out to billionaires. We are going out to foundations," Mr. Crisp said. "But ... it is a really, really bad idea to try and push it off onto private industry or private individuals or private donors. It just does not make sense."
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
U.S. in race with China to claim ‘best' part of Moon: NASA Chief
The United States is in a new space race with China to claim the most resource-rich part of the moon, NASA's interim administrator Sean Duffy said while announcing plans to install a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface by 2030. 'We're in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy,' he said. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday (August 5, 2025) titled 'Unleashing American Drone Dominance' held by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which Mr. Duffy also leads. Mr. Duffy explained that energy is the key to setting up a permanent base, and that's why he wants a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor placed on the moon within the next five years. He said such a reactor would generate about the same amount of electricity that a typical U.S. household uses in 3.5 days. The NASA administrator also said that there is a specific region on the moon that is especially valuable and that both the U.S. and China are eyeing it. 'There's a certain part of the moon that everyone knows is the best,' he said. 'We have ice there. We have sunlight there. We want to get there first and claim that for America' he said. Water ice and continuous sunlight make certain parts of the moon, especially near the south pole, ideal for setting up a permanent base. These conditions are important for both sustaining human life and generating power. Mr. Duffy also addressed concerns about launching nuclear material into space. He made it clear that the reactor would not be active when launched from Earth. 'We're not launching this live. That's obviously if you have any questions about that,' he said. While comparing the Artemis lunar programme to the historic Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s, Mr. Duffy admitted that NASA's current efforts haven't captured public attention in the same way. 'A lot of people don't even know what Artemis is. Everyone knew what Apollo was. We all knew. The whole world knew what Apollo was. We were going to the moon; Artemis is. we're going back,' Mr. Duffy said.
