Space botany: Astronauts grow peppers, lettuce, and more on space station – Washington Examiner

Astronauts on the International Space Station have developed a green thumb, growing a variety of plants while in space.

Red romaine lettuce, mustard plants, and peppers are being grown on the Vegetable Production System, a space garden on the space station, and the Advanced Plant Habitat, a growth chamber for plant research.

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"It's really fun to see all these leafy greens that we've been growing in space for the last few years because the astronauts can eat them right away. We call them pick-and-eat crops. We grow them. They can pick them and eat them right away," said Christina Johnson, post-doctoral fellow at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, in a podcast episode of Gravity Assist published Friday. "We're looking not at replacing their diet. We're looking at supplementing their diet. So, it's like, OK, they can make lettuce wraps with this lettuce. They can do all these fun things with the food that they have."

Plants grown on the space station are being used as a nutrient-rich food option to supplement freeze-dried and prepackaged meals that astronauts receive.

"So, spicy hot peppers grew in the advanced plant habitat, and those did so well, and the astronauts loved them, and they took their tortillas and made tacos with them and things when it came time to eat them," Johnson said.

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Through the space garden, astronauts have successfully grown a variety of plants, including three types of lettuce, Chinese cabbage, mizuna mustard, red Russian kale, and zinnia flowers.

Scientists hope the garden will provide astronauts with the ability to grow supplemental food crops for longer missions as NASA explores space, including possible trips to Mars.

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Space botany: Astronauts grow peppers, lettuce, and more on space station - Washington Examiner