NASA shows the results of the 33 day harvest of LED plants in the space station

Astronauts are going to display their cultivated space plants at the international space station (photo source: NASA)

Finally, fresh plants in the space microgravity environment have formally mounted the menus of the astronauts at the NASA international space station. Team members of the expedition 44 group, including Scott Kelly, a year in space man, are ready to show their harvest in August 10th: the space version of red vine lettuce. The red vine lettuce is a vegetable growing system from the orbital laboratory.

Before the start, the astronauts will use the citric acid base food grade safety disinfectant to disinfect the vegetable leaves. They eat half of the harvest, and the other half will be packaged and frozen and brought back to earth for scientific analysis.

NASA's plant experiment, called Veg-01, is used to study the operation of plants in space orbit and the growth efficiency and the "cultivation bag" with seeds and roots.

NASA continues to stimulate the plant and vegetable technology of the space station to provide a sustainable source of food for future astronauts - a very important part of the manned mission to Mars. Vegetables will be an important source of food for the astronauts team as NASA moves towards the long-range space exploration mission and deeper into the solar system. And it can also be used as a spaceman's leisure activities in the execution of outer space missions. The seeds have been placed in space for 15 months before they begin to grow. The first bag was opened in May 2014 and was watered and cultivated by the flight engineer of the expedition 39 group, Stephen Swanson (Steve). After 33 days of growth, a successful harvest returned to the Kennedy air center in October 2014 and received a food safety analysis. The second Veg-01 cultivation bags were launched in July 8th and were cultivated for 33 days and harvested by Kelly.

NASA plans to plant edible plants in outer space and other planets for space human food supplies. (photo source: NASA)

The plant system was developed by the ORBITEC in Wisconsin and tested in the Kennedy Aerospace Center to get into space. The vegetables and two set up the cultivation bag with the vine seeds and a group of hundred day chrysanthemum were sent to the space station with the SpaceX task in April 2014.

The detachable and extensible plants are made up of a shallow layer of flat plates with red, blue and green LED lamps for plant growth and convenience for observation. The concept of planting plants using LED lights can be traced back to the NASA plan of 1990s. The advanced maintenance program was led by Dr. Ray Wheeler and developed in the Kennedy exploration and technology project office.

Dr. Weller worked with engineers and the innovative research project team from the American orbital technology center to develop plant and vegetable systems. Dr. Gioia Marsha (Gioia Massa) is a specialized vegetable scientist at Kennedy in NASA. Dr. Marsha and the team developed the plant and vegetable units used in space to verify that they can grow in space. The purple / pink light of plants in the plant system comes from a combination of red and blue lights, designed to produce more light than a green LED lamp. At the same time, adding green LED lights, in the purple light, it makes people feel a little strange appearance, let the plants look more like what can eat. "Blue and red wavelengths are the basic conditions for plant growth," Weller said. They should be the most efficient color for conversion of electricity into light energy. Green LED helps to strengthen the visual effects of humans on plants, but the light is not as much as the red and blue lights.

From 2010 to 2011, Dr. Weller, Marsha and Gary? Ary Stutte (G? Ary Stutte) used similar experiments in the desert area of Arizona at NASA's environmental drill unit (Habitat Demonstration Unit) to cultivate plants. Dr. Weller said the plant system would help NASA understand more information about planting plants in a controlled agricultural environment. Similar settings include vertical agriculture, which is planted in a cascade of water - cultivated crops and used as a light source with red and blue LED lights. Such systems are popular in some Asian countries, and the United States has also begun to follow up the plant.

"The evidence shows that tomatoes, blueberries and red lettuce are good sources of antioxidants," Weller said. If you can get this kind of food in space, it will be helpful to the human mood, and it can also reduce the effect of space radiation on the class. After the first batch of lettuce was harvested and sent back to the space station, Marsha began working with a team of flight doctors and NASA's security representatives to get approval for the astronauts team to eat the crops. "The results of the microbial food safety analysis of Veg-01 rodvine lettuce seem very good," Ma Sha said. In addition to nutritional value, planting plants in space has a positive impact on the psychological aspects of the astronauts? NASA Johnson Space Center, a scientist at the Jansen Space Center in Houston, studied by Vermeer, Yali mountain, to find out the answer.

Vermeer is a scientist of behavioral and behavioral research and is involved in the human research program of NASA. Her team is working to study the psychological risks that can mitigate the manned mission of Mars. Vermeer pointed out: "vegetable planting experiments are currently in our research, the only focus on assessing the impact of plants on human space in outer space." Her team worked on the behavior of space crew, performance decline, team communication, and psychological adjustment. Vermeer described: "a space flight in the future may have up to 6 spacepeople living in a limited space for a long time, and the opportunity to communicate with each other is limited. We have learned that it is important to provide training for this point, so that it is necessary for the astronauts to have enough response. "

The ability to strain can include meaningful work. Environmental changes also include the life of plant plants. Vermeer says that research on the Earth shows that plants are associated with a healthy life and excellent performance. Plants are also likely to be a response to the long - term space mission.

The marshal agreed: "the astronauts may also have psychological help in addition to the ability to cultivate and eat fresh food. When a supply ship arrives at the space station, the astronaut team can indeed eat fresh fruits and vegetables like carrots and apples. But the number is limited and they have to be eaten as soon as possible. "

There is a little greenery around the earth - an object from the earth - the space man who lives and works in a very high pressure environment may have a great value and a positive impact. "The farther, the longer the time you leave the earth, the greater the demand for planting plants as food, air circulation, and heart help," Marsha points out. I think the plant and vegetable system will be an important element in long distance space exploration. " This system may also have potential help to improve plant production and biomass production on the earth, which will benefit mankind. Marsha says NASA's knowledge of vegetable and vegetable systems can be used in urban plant plants and other agricultural related situations on the theme of artificial lighting and water conservation.

"We want to be able to increase plant species in the future, which will help us understand more plants growing in the microgravity environment. We will do experiments in the future to assess the effects of light quality on planting nutrition and taste in the earth and in space.

The team at Kennedy and Jansen aviation center hopes that the plant system and space planting will become the precious and important life body to go to the air station and go to Mars. (compiled / China LED network emmachang)

For more information on LED, click on the Chinese LED network or pay attention to the WeChat public account (cnledw2013).