The astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) tested the first Monday lettuce grown in space, in what scientists described as another step toward human missions to Mars.
“Our first vegetables were harvested and consumed by astronauts in space! “wrote NASA’s Twitter account.
The event was broadcast on television of NASA, who cut their coverage of a Russian spacewalk to convey the historical tasting.
If the space explorers can grow their own food while away from Earth are more likely to survive the rigors of deep space exploration, which lasted months or even years, depending on NASA.
“There is evidence supporting the idea that fresh food such as tomatoes, lettuce and purple blueberries are a good source of antioxidants,” said Ray Wheeler, a scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Florida.
“Having fresh food as available space could have a positive impact on the mood of the people and could also provide some protection against radiation in space,” he said.
The purple lettuce was grown in a special box for culture called Veg-01, and went into space aboard the cargo ship SpaceX Dragon.
The seeds were “activated” by the US astronaut Scott Kelly on July 8, NASA said. Plants were grown for 33 days before being harvested.
A previous lettuce crop was grown last year in space but was not tested by astronauts but was sent to Earth for testing security.
The astronauts leaves carefully cleaned with disinfectant wipes before eating, NASA said on its website.
They could eat only half of the leaves. The rest should be set apart for packing them and freeze them at the station until they can be sent to Earth for scientific analysis.
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