Space agriculture boldly grows food where no one has grown before

britannica.com ^ | Ajwal Dsouza

[BenLurkin]

Humans have managed to survive and grow plants in low-Earth orbit aboard several spacecraft and stations. Space is the ultimate “harsh environment” for life to exist in, including plants, due to such novel stressors as cosmic radiation and lack of gravity.

Space biologist Anna-Lisa Paul describes plants as being able to “reach into their genetic toolbox and remake the tools they need” to adapt to the novel environment of space.

Space agencies have been working on specialized systems that provide the conditions necessary for plant cultivation in space. These systems are containers that can control the internal environment and grow plants without soil under LED lights. NASA’s research in controlled environment systems to grow plants was foundational in developing the modern-day vertical farm sector — indoor farms that grow crops in stacks without soil under the purple haze of LEDs.

Considering the constraints of space, crop production techniques need to be more energy-efficient and require minimal human input. Crops need to also be nutrition-rich, with the ability to withstand high-stress environments.

Scientists are developing a more resource-efficient potato crop where the whole plant can be consumed, including roots, shoots and fruits.

[GaltAdonis]

They'll eat algae and LIKE IT!!!

/sarc

[BenLurkin]

Lots and lots of Soylent Green. The farther out in space — the more Soylent Green there will be on the menu.

[GaltAdonis]

"People - It's what's for dinner."

[JJBookman]

As I recalled, nobody cared and just kept on eating the wafers.

[TigersEye]

I’m not eating potatoes grown in Matt Damon’s poop. Nope!

[The Louiswu]

So we gotta haul the seed, nutrients, water, to orbit, build a very large place to grow the stuff and keep the plants and the people safe from hard radiation.

Then once you have a crop of any meaningful size you got to send it back down to Earth, then since the system will have some loss you gotta haul more o everything back into orbit and start again.

On top of the thousand other things you’ll need and the hundreds of things that can go wrong, you might get a few pounds of, what, mushrooms, yeast? Why not just plant stuff here on ground that the gov pays to remain unused?

[DannyTN]

[jmcenanly]

You seem to assume that the crops will be used on Earth, rather than where they were grown.