Gardening for health in outer space

Interesting article about optimum vegetables for space travel.  My one quibble is that they describe sweet potato leaves as inedible:

https://astronomy.com/news/2023/03/a-scientific-salad-for-astronauts-in-deep-space

Interesting to note, what ingredients they chose. Good old kale made the list! Basically everybody should be growing these, growing zone permitting. Thank you for sharing!!

Mk Neal wrote:My one quibble is that they describe sweet potato leaves as inedible:

Yes, and burning the plant waste seems like an odd choice on a spacecraft too.
They are proposing that the salad could be grown hydroponically. I wonder about that for sweet potatoes actually. What characteristics would they want to breed into the plants? Dwarf sunflowers that produce large seeds would be one, I guess.

Nancy Reading wrote: What characteristics would they want to breed into the plants? Dwarf sunflowers that produce large seeds would be one, I guess.

There's a thread here on permies about how small scale sunflower seed processing hasn't been mechanized. I suspect they'd want to breed crops without hulls - like hull-less oats or if they didn't take up soooo... much space, hull-less pumpkin seeds.

Yes, and burning the plant waste seems like an odd choice on a spacecraft too.

My quick read suggested they were thinking in terms of "energy from waste", but I agree with that sounding "odd". I suppose they don't want methane or molds from composting!

They are proposing that the salad could be grown hydroponically. I wonder about that for sweet potatoes actually.

 Isn't there a law about energy not being created or destroyed - only changing form? To me, hydroponic growing still uses water and air, which in a closed space ship, still has to come from somewhere... Lots of stuff can be recycled around and around, but all those atoms had to start out on that spaceship, so I fear this is much more complicated than meets the eye.

Then there's the law about entropy being a bitch (or something like that), which I think means something like - everything turns into heat and if the heat isn't held onto as long as possible and used wisely, it goes elsewhere forever. (Except when it hangs around and does bad things instead.)

Hopefully the people who are studying and experimenting with this problem, know a whole lot more about both gardening and space travel than I do!

Is this “research” possibly a displacement activity, or a distraction?

Don’t we need to address more urgent questions, like climate change for instance?  And direct our resources towards that oncoming headlight, as opposed to pretending we are going to and it is appropriate to send people across the void to Mars and beyond?  

I mean, is that really appropriate use of technology?

There won’t be a planet more perfectly fit for humanity than dear Gaia.  Why not recognize that we are already hurtling through space on an exquisite solar powered space ship, original equipment an intricate interconnected set of systems using and reusing all resources, and which we are an integral part of?  Why not research appropriate corrective maintenance as if our lives depended on it?

What salad shall we grow and make for optimum health and nutrition for ourselves and every other living entity on earth, meanwhile  maintaining human friendly conditions on earth?

Sometimes we forget that there are folks who live in outer space.

These folks need fresh food so gardening for health from outer space is not unheard of.


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NASA is doing research on this for ISS (International Space Station):

The basic research has allowed NASA scientists to grow edible plants in space that could be used as a source of fresh food by the crew on the ISS. Considering that every single thing that astronauts eat is freeze-dried and comes out of a shrink-wrapped package, being able to enjoy a fresh vegetable provides a healthy and much welcomed break from this routine. Already, edible romaine lettuce and cabbage has successfully been grown on the ISS

https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/programs/space-biology/plant-biology

Plants not only take in carbon dioxide and return oxygen, but they are exceptionally good at capturing harmful toxins from the air. NASA research has delved into how plants do this, and how to potentially use plants to provide clean air on long-duration space missions.

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2019/cg_7.html

Earth Matters - Salad Days on the International Space Station


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I posted this topic because I thought it offered a piece of great survival information:

https://permies.com/t/213455/Martian-Garden