8 ms·

Space Farming: The Final Frontier

88 points by sinemetu11 13y ago

krschultz 13y ago
The first batch of space-ready lettuce is something of a tease for the NASA crew — once harvested, it will be frozen and stored away for testing back on Earth. No one is allowed to eat anything before the plants are thoroughly vetted for cosmic microbes. These space germs are often fairly benign, akin to the natural bacteria that build up in any moist root bank. Russian crews are allowed to consume vegetables grow on their side of the space station, but microbe standards are strict and unwavering on U.S. space missions. That is the strangest part of the whole article. It's amazing how much science the USSR did on long term space habitation (including growing plants) that just gets ignored by NASA. Unfortunately I can't recall the title, but I read a book on the Soviet space program maybe 10 years ago that detailed all of the progress the USSR made prior to the US SkyLab program, and honestly they were 10-15 years ahead on that stuff compared to NASA.
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
  I wonder if there is a clandestine trade in Russian veg up there.
  - trafficlight 13y ago
    "Just one leaf, man. Just one. I'll do anything you want."
- murtali 13y ago
  "Russian crews are allowed to consume vegetables grow on their side of the space station" I thought that line was the funniest in the article. I can imagine an image of Vladimir munching his veggies as poor Joe looks on.
- Wingman4l7 13y ago
  Mary Roach had a bit in her book Packing for Mars about the huge impact fresh food has on astronaut morale. She also included a great anecdote about how some early Russian cosmonauts ended up eating some onion bulbs that were meant for a zero-gravity plant growth experiment: The diary of cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev includes a story about a batch of onion bulbs taken on board Salyut as part of an investigation of plant growth in zero gravity. “As we were unloading the resupply ship, we found some rye-bread and a knife. So we ate some bread. Then we saw the onion bulbs we were supposed to plant. We ate them right then and there, with bread and salt. They were delicious. Time went by and the biologists asked us, ‘How are the onions?’ “‘They are growing,’ we answered…. “‘Do they have shoots?’ Without any hesitation we replied that they even had shoots. There was great excitement at the communication station. Onions have never bloomed in space before! We asked to speak to the head biologist in private. ‘For god’s sake,’ we told him, ‘don’t get upset, we ate your onions.’”
  - gexla 13y ago
    Astronauts gone wild. "I don't know about the onions, but the weed grows great up here! We grew enough up here to last for the next few missions!" It's interesting to think how long these veggies could last within human civilization beyond Earth. How would our veggies evolve (only from genetic modification?) Would they be largely immune from disease in this environment? What would be the possibility of them hitting some sort of genetic dead end and us losing our entire supply? Could we create new types of veggies?
yetanotherphd 13y ago
How long before astronauts are blogging about how their space farm saves on transportation costs and stimulates their local economy?
zeteo 13y ago
>Leafy greens are ideal, ready to be consumed as soon as they’re plucked [...] The most outlandish crops would be wheat and rice. [...P]lants that need processing make less attractive candidates for space travel. Well, these "outlandish" cereal crops currently provide the bulk of calories for almost everyone on the planet. If you're serious about feeding astronauts in space, they are exactly the plants that you need to start with. And don't tell me equipment to grind wheat or hull rice would be complicated, compared with other stuff that's in orbit already.
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
  If you are serious about feeding astronauts in space, then you need to classify what gives the highest percentage edible matter in the whole plant and needs the least mass of things like water. Leafy plants with minimal root systems seem like a good start. Grains have loads of stalk and root that you don't eat, tend to need a lot of water and need extra equipment in preparation and are often used as powders, which easily form combustible suspensions in low gravity.
  - zeteo 13y ago
    >you need to classify what gives the highest percentage edible matter in the whole plant and needs the least mass of things like water Maybe if you don't care about total area. Stalks and all, grains and tubers are the most efficient at transforming square footage of sunlight into edible calories; water would get completely recycled in any case.
    - azernik 13y ago
      Square footage of sunlight is not necessarily the limiting factor in space as it is on earth; (solar) energy for grow lights is cheap, pressurized volume is very very expensive. And even if water is recycled, tying a certain amount of it up in your food production system still has a cost.
      - flogic 13y ago
oceanician 13y ago
would love to see this done in space: http://www.biosphericproject.com/frontpage http://www.biosphericproject.com/frontpage (A biospheric greenhouse project in Salford/Manchester, UK.
mflindell 13y ago
Why is everything always the final frontier? Its kind of depressing that they said that space is the FINAL frontier. Does that mean we have nothing to aspire to after that? Now apparently the new "final frontier" is lettuce.
- sdfjkl 13y ago
  It's a pretty big frontier. So far we're just looking out the window and carefully sticking a toe out the door now and then.
- zem 13y ago
  i think the theory is that, "space" going on forever, it is one vast, unending frontier beyond which there can be no others. also (seriously) the phrase "final frontier" being alliterative gives it a lot of memetic staying power.
  - mflindell 13y ago
    I'm sure back a few hundred years, sailors would have claimed that the other side of the ocean is the final frontier. Seems like just a way of looking at it to entice people into believing in a cause.
    - krapp 13y ago
      There was something on the other side of that ocean, though, besides more ocean.
      - mflindell 13y ago
        Well we know that now, they wouldn't know whats behind the ocean back then. Remember the idea that the earth was flat? At the moment we are at a point in time where we cant see the end of space but there might be another "ocean" at the end, who knows!
        aninhumer 13y ago
chrismealy 13y ago
Oh good lord, just send a robot instead.
sdfjkl 13y ago
I've recently gotten interested in this and have built my own aeroponics tank from a cheap plastic storage box and an ultrasonic fogger (together below $15, but nutrient and pH/TDS meters add a bit more to it). It's a fun experiment and worth trying down here in the gravity trap too - you can grow vegetables in a rental apartment with no garden if you have access to some sunlight (and even if you don't, by way of artificial light). This video gave me the idea and instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWLyA-w4Bo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWLyA-w4Bo
shire 13y ago
Saw something similar to this on BattleStar Galactica. It's amazing how every Sci-Fi I've watched is becoming more and more practical.
coin 13y ago
-1 for disabling pinchzoom for mobile devices. I wish there were a browser setting to disable the disabling of pinchzoom.
greedo 13y ago
Reminds me of Silent Running.

88 points by sinemetu11 13y ago

The first batch of space-ready lettuce is something of a tease for the NASA crew — once harvested, it will be frozen and stored away for testing back on Earth. No one is allowed to eat anything before the plants are thoroughly vetted for cosmic microbes. These space germs are often fairly benign, akin to the natural bacteria that build up in any moist root bank. Russian crews are allowed to consume vegetables grow on their side of the space station, but microbe standards are strict and unwavering on U.S. space missions. That is the strangest part of the whole article. It's amazing how much science the USSR did on long term space habitation (including growing plants) that just gets ignored by NASA. Unfortunately I can't recall the title, but I read a book on the Soviet space program maybe 10 years ago that detailed all of the progress the USSR made prior to the US SkyLab program, and honestly they were 10-15 years ahead on that stuff compared to NASA.

moocowduckquack 13y ago
I wonder if there is a clandestine trade in Russian veg up there.
- trafficlight 13y ago
  "Just one leaf, man. Just one. I'll do anything you want."
murtali 13y ago
"Russian crews are allowed to consume vegetables grow on their side of the space station" I thought that line was the funniest in the article. I can imagine an image of Vladimir munching his veggies as poor Joe looks on.
Wingman4l7 13y ago
Mary Roach had a bit in her book Packing for Mars about the huge impact fresh food has on astronaut morale. She also included a great anecdote about how some early Russian cosmonauts ended up eating some onion bulbs that were meant for a zero-gravity plant growth experiment: The diary of cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev includes a story about a batch of onion bulbs taken on board Salyut as part of an investigation of plant growth in zero gravity. “As we were unloading the resupply ship, we found some rye-bread and a knife. So we ate some bread. Then we saw the onion bulbs we were supposed to plant. We ate them right then and there, with bread and salt. They were delicious. Time went by and the biologists asked us, ‘How are the onions?’ “‘They are growing,’ we answered…. “‘Do they have shoots?’ Without any hesitation we replied that they even had shoots. There was great excitement at the communication station. Onions have never bloomed in space before! We asked to speak to the head biologist in private. ‘For god’s sake,’ we told him, ‘don’t get upset, we ate your onions.’”
- gexla 13y ago
  Astronauts gone wild. "I don't know about the onions, but the weed grows great up here! We grew enough up here to last for the next few missions!" It's interesting to think how long these veggies could last within human civilization beyond Earth. How would our veggies evolve (only from genetic modification?) Would they be largely immune from disease in this environment? What would be the possibility of them hitting some sort of genetic dead end and us losing our entire supply? Could we create new types of veggies?

yetanotherphd 13y ago

How long before astronauts are blogging about how their space farm saves on transportation costs and stimulates their local economy?

zeteo 13y ago

>Leafy greens are ideal, ready to be consumed as soon as they’re plucked [...] The most outlandish crops would be wheat and rice. [...P]lants that need processing make less attractive candidates for space travel. Well, these "outlandish" cereal crops currently provide the bulk of calories for almost everyone on the planet. If you're serious about feeding astronauts in space, they are exactly the plants that you need to start with. And don't tell me equipment to grind wheat or hull rice would be complicated, compared with other stuff that's in orbit already.

moocowduckquack 13y ago
If you are serious about feeding astronauts in space, then you need to classify what gives the highest percentage edible matter in the whole plant and needs the least mass of things like water. Leafy plants with minimal root systems seem like a good start. Grains have loads of stalk and root that you don't eat, tend to need a lot of water and need extra equipment in preparation and are often used as powders, which easily form combustible suspensions in low gravity.
- zeteo 13y ago
  >you need to classify what gives the highest percentage edible matter in the whole plant and needs the least mass of things like water Maybe if you don't care about total area. Stalks and all, grains and tubers are the most efficient at transforming square footage of sunlight into edible calories; water would get completely recycled in any case.
  - azernik 13y ago
    Square footage of sunlight is not necessarily the limiting factor in space as it is on earth; (solar) energy for grow lights is cheap, pressurized volume is very very expensive. And even if water is recycled, tying a certain amount of it up in your food production system still has a cost.
    - flogic 13y ago

oceanician 13y ago

would love to see this done in space: http://www.biosphericproject.com/frontpage http://www.biosphericproject.com/frontpage (A biospheric greenhouse project in Salford/Manchester, UK.

mflindell 13y ago

Why is everything always the final frontier? Its kind of depressing that they said that space is the FINAL frontier. Does that mean we have nothing to aspire to after that? Now apparently the new "final frontier" is lettuce.

sdfjkl 13y ago
It's a pretty big frontier. So far we're just looking out the window and carefully sticking a toe out the door now and then.
zem 13y ago
i think the theory is that, "space" going on forever, it is one vast, unending frontier beyond which there can be no others. also (seriously) the phrase "final frontier" being alliterative gives it a lot of memetic staying power.
- mflindell 13y ago
  I'm sure back a few hundred years, sailors would have claimed that the other side of the ocean is the final frontier. Seems like just a way of looking at it to entice people into believing in a cause.
  - krapp 13y ago
    There was something on the other side of that ocean, though, besides more ocean.
    - mflindell 13y ago
      Well we know that now, they wouldn't know whats behind the ocean back then. Remember the idea that the earth was flat? At the moment we are at a point in time where we cant see the end of space but there might be another "ocean" at the end, who knows!
      - aninhumer 13y ago

chrismealy 13y ago

Oh good lord, just send a robot instead.

sdfjkl 13y ago

I've recently gotten interested in this and have built my own aeroponics tank from a cheap plastic storage box and an ultrasonic fogger (together below $15, but nutrient and pH/TDS meters add a bit more to it). It's a fun experiment and worth trying down here in the gravity trap too - you can grow vegetables in a rental apartment with no garden if you have access to some sunlight (and even if you don't, by way of artificial light). This video gave me the idea and instructions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWLyA-w4Bo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWLyA-w4Bo

shire 13y ago

Saw something similar to this on BattleStar Galactica. It's amazing how every Sci-Fi I've watched is becoming more and more practical.

coin 13y ago

-1 for disabling pinchzoom for mobile devices. I wish there were a browser setting to disable the disabling of pinchzoom.

greedo 13y ago

Reminds me of Silent Running.