Space food is not the most appealing thing in the world. Sure, it’s nutritious and it’s exactly what your body needs for those months away from Earth, but astronauts would still benefit from growing their own vegetables — especially for longer missions to the Moon or Mars.
It’s not the first time astronauts have considered growing vegetables in space — in fact, this has been done before by NASA, and the veggies have actually been eaten. Yes, they were reportedly delicious. Now, NASA wants to expand its range of space veggies, but growing plants in microgravity is not the easiest thing in the world: You need a carefully managed environment, a steady source of light, and even then, we don’t know if all plants will grow properly.
But we’ll learn soon enough.
