Mission Veggie System: ISS Astronauts Preps for Tomato Farm in Space

Growing plants onboard the International Space Station (ISS), among other things, has long been a NASA objective. For years, the space agency has experimented with off-world gardening intending to someday move it beyond a research experiment and into actual agriculture. NASA has now reported that ISS team members have started the next phase of the continuing gardening experiment, Veg-05, by producing tiny tomatoes.

NASA Flight Engineer Nicole Mann started installation of the new Veg-05 space agricultural project last Thursday, which will soon produce miniature tomatoes as astronauts evaluate fertilizing practices, microbiological food safety, nutrient benefits, and taste. Cultivating fresh food on future missions farther from Earth might boost crew morale and lessen reliance on space freight flights.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) veteran station astronaut Koichi Wakata serviced microbial samples being studied for the Neural Integration System biotechnological experiment. Wakata fed the bacteria within the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, a highly specialized incubator equipped with an artificial gravity producer, for the research, which might shed light on neuromuscular disorders like Parkinson's disease, as per the press release from the agency.

Prepping for Spacewalk

Mann and Wakata were subsequently joined by NASA scientists Josh Cassada with Frank Rubio in prepping for a spacewalk scheduled to begin at 7:25 a.m. Saturday, EST. Throughout the seven-hour expedition, the trio examined the measures Cassada and Rubio will take to deploy a roll-out solar array on the station's Starboard- 4 truss segment. Mann plus Wakata are inside the space station assisting the duo beforehand, during, and then after the spacewalk.

Ground controllers remotely controlling the Canadarm2 robotic arm withdrew the roll-out-solar array, commonly known as an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array, or iROSA, from inside the unpressurized trunk of the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. The iROSA was then attached to a port truss structure attachment site. The spacewalkers will next collect the wrap solar array on Saturday and then place it on the starboard truss section. The new iROSA is supplementing the space station's power production system.

(Photo : NASA)
This preflight image shows the Red Robin dwarf tomato used for Veg-05 growing in Veggie hardware at the Kennedy Space Center.

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Symbiotic Benefits

Taste is an important factor for NASA when it comes to selecting nourishment for its astronauts, thus the experiment will also track the tomatoes' gustatory properties.

It will be some time before there are complete greenhouses in orbit or on the Moon, however, the Veggie trials will be critical in getting there. Allowing astronauts to produce their food would help them to become more self-sufficient, which is critical given NASA's intentions to send humans to the lunar surface by 2024 and maybe establish a Moon settlement by the end of this decade.

According to NASA, the capacity to develop a supplementary food crop is becoming increasingly important as humanity expands its space exploration beyond Earth. They consider it as a solution to the problem of long-duration deep space missions. The packaged diet that is now being used by crew members in low-Earth orbit performs well and has enabled an unbroken human presence in outer space since November. However, it is dependent on periodic resupply trips.

Throughout a two- or three-year Mars mission, the vitamins and food quality would deteriorate with time. Fresh, edible crops as a supplement would supply essential nutrients while also increasing dietary variety; anecdotal evidence also backs up the satisfaction that consuming and maintaining plants has the potential to provide psychological advantages for astronauts, as per the space agency.