According to foreign media New Atlas, a few years ago, astronauts first ate lettuce grown on the International Space Station. During the period from 20 14 to 20 16, the red long-leaf lettuce "Outredgeous" grew on the International Space Station for 33 to 56 days and in the zero-gravity greenhouse of the vegetable production system of NASA. The device includes, among other things, LED planting lights and an automatic watering system.
When a group of three astronauts each ate a few leaves, the rest of the crops were frozen and shipped back to earth. Scientists at Kennedy Space Center analyzed it chemically and biologically, and then compared it with red long-leaf lettuce grown in the center's laboratory at the same time. The growth conditions of "earth lettuce" match the temperature, carbon dioxide level and humidity in the vegetable greenhouse.
Generally speaking, scientists have found that the composition of the earth and ISS plants is very similar. However, in some cases, space lettuce is actually rich in potassium, sodium, phosphorus, sulfur and zinc. It also contains high content of phenols, and these molecules have been proved to have antiviral, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties.
Interestingly, the diversity and identity of microorganisms in the two groups of plants are similar-assuming that the biological species contained in ISS lettuce will decrease. Importantly, no harmful bacteria were found on any plants. Therefore, according to these and other findings, space lettuce is considered edible.
Dr Gioia Massa, the co-author of the research paper and the Kennedy Space Center, said: "The International Space Station is serving as a test bed for future long-term missions. These types of crop growth experiments are helping to expand candidates who can grow effectively in microgravity. Future tests will study other types of leafy crops and fruits and vegetables, such as peppers and tomatoes, to help provide fresh agricultural products to supplement the astronauts' diet. "
This paper was recently published in Frontier of Plant Science.
If you want to know more about the nutritional value of "Space Lettuce" planted on ISS, which is comparable to similar products on earth, please continue to pay attention to the column of deep space science and technology information, and Bian Xiao will continue to update more scientific and technological information for you. Heart of the King 2 Click on the demo.