NASA's expedition crew has begun a new space botany experiment by installing a new Veg-05 study on the International Space Station.
This effort of growing plants in the ISS has long been a priority for the space agency, but this time, they are hoping to eventually progress to legitimate agriculture.
The Ongoing Gardening Experiment Involves Dwarf Tomatoes
The Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity Nutritional Value and Acceptability to Supplement the ISS Food System investigation is the full name of NASA's Veg-05 study.
According to CNet, the goal of the study is to grow dwarf or cherry tomato plants under two different light quality treatments in space and in one ground-based experiment.
"We are testing tomatoes, looking at the impacts of light spectrum on how well the crop grows, how delicious and nutritious the tomatoes are, and the microbial activity on the fruit and plants," project scientist Gioia Massa says.
She adds that through this experiment, NASA's Life Sciences department is also examining the overall effect of growing, tending, and eating these crops on the health of the crew.
Once the crops have fully grown and are harvested, the crew will analyze the differences in fruit yield, nutritional composition, and microbial levels through scientific tools and personal surveys.
This means that the study team members themselves will test the tomatoes by eating them to rate their individual flavor, texture, and juiciness, among other things.
On November 26, the mission to launch the tomato seeds for the experiment into space was successful via the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The Byte says that the tomatoes will be grown on the Vegetable Production System, which is the ISS space garden that astronauts have used to grow some of their food in the past.
The Vegetable Production System, more simply known as Veggie, is a suitcase-sized space where astronauts have been growing lettuce, cabbages, kale, lentils, radishes, and peppers.
Last year, the ISS crew was able to make and eat tacos from the piquant green chile the astronauts harvested from Veggie.
Read More: NASA's Orion Spacecraft Is Almost Earthbound - When Will It Get Home?
Why Is NASA Growing Vegetables In Space
Growing tomatoes will make a significant departure from leafy greens, which have been popular with astronauts as they are substantial, filling, and fresh.
According to NASA, enabling astronauts to grow their own food will let them be more self-sufficient, which is crucial to the space agency's plan to bring humans back on the Moon by 2024.
This is because it is difficult to take regular food to astronauts in space during resupply missions, which are normally headed on long-term journeys, CNet reports.
According to NASA, the packaged food currently supplied by the agency to the ISS has staple food for its crew, but it requires frequent resupply missions to reach the astronauts.
Additionally, during long-term missions, packaged food tends to degrade and lose the vitamins it has, which is why supplementing with fresh, edible crops is necessary.
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