ISS Ideas, Tips & Guides

Header image: An illustration of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft approaching the International Space Station for docking. Image credit: NASA

Header image: Window View of Astronaut Holding DoubleTree Cookie. Image credit: Hilton

Header image: Lettuce in a grow room. Image credit: University of Western Australia (UWA).

Header image: Space broccoli. Image credit: NASA/Don Pettit

Header image: Nicotiana benthamiana seedlings growing in simulated lunar soil in a laboratory at the China Agricultural University in Beijing. Image credit: Yitong Xia via REUTERS. 

How does a kitchen gardener choose what to grow? It’s about balancing quite a complex set of variables, which include the space and time available, the local climate and soil, the gardener’s skill level and what they like to eat. That last one is, itself, quite a complicated topic as culture plays a significant role. There are many thousands of edible plants on the planet; most people only eat a small number and grow fewer still.

Header image: Mizuna lettuce growing aboard the International Space Station before being harvested and frozen for return to Earth. Image credit: NASA 

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, NASA astronaut Steve Swanson has been doing some gardening on the International Space Station, growing ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce in the new VEGGIE gardening system. This inaugural experiment, called Veg-01, is partly a test of the hardware and partly to see whether space-grown crops will be safe to eat. After all his hard work, Steve doesn’t get to eat his lettuce – it has to be returned to Earth for testing. If the lettuce is proved safe, a second batch of lettuce can be grown and eaten later in the year. This would be the first mouthful of ‘homegrown’ food to be consumed in space, and NASA have produced a great video explaining the VEGGIE project:

Header image: Good enough to eat – ‘Outredgeous’ lettuce grown under pink lights on the International Space Station. NASA, CC BY-SA

Fresh from the success that allowed astronauts to eat lettuce grown in space in August, NASA’s Veggie plant-growing hardware on the International Space Station (ISS) has been reloaded with new plant pillows – this time sown with Zinnia ‘Profusion’.

It’s hard to imagine anyone being more excited about eating lettuce than the three astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were yesterday, when they tucked into the first leaves of space-grown lettuce they’ve been allowed to eat. Despite having to sanitise the leaves first, with citric-acid-based, food-safe, antibacterial wipes (yummy!), they broke out the oil and vinegar and tucked in with gusto. They even thanked Mission Control and the scientists for giving them the opportunity to take part in this payload mission, and saved some veggies for the Russian cosmonauts who were outside on a spacewalk at harvest time.

If you’re currently tending lettuce plants, then you have something in common with the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS). They’re testing NASA’s new Vegetable Production System – affectionately known as ‘Veggie’. At 11.5 inches by 14.5 inches, Veggie is the largest plant growth chamber to have been blasted into space, and was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps the latest space plant news and then talks about some of the seeds with space stories.

This is a really fun video (12:24 long) from Adam Savage’s Tested series, in which a chef tries to help astronauts on the ISS eat nicer meals by combining foods they already have in stock. Chris Hadfield is their astronaut guinea pig, and demonstrates very effectively why it’s so hard to prepare meals in space!

Header image: Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage leaves prior to harvest aboard the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

Right now, 200 miles above your head, chilli peppers are growing on the International Space Station (ISS).

Astronaut Steven Swanson tending to the Veggie garden on the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

This week, Gardeners Off World watched as the latest SpaceX launch (CRS-19) delivered more exciting experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).

ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli will carry a special greenhouse during his expedition aboard the International Space Station and he invites young science enthusiasts to carry out experiments there with him.

Over our heads, on the International Space Station, chilli peppers are blooming and being hand-pollinated by astronauts.

At 11 pm on Friday (BST, 18:01 EDT), SpaceX launched an uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). This Dragon capsule has been to the ISS twice before, making it the first to fly in space for a third time. This is the 18th SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract mission for NASA: CRS-18.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps important spacecraft Arrivals and Departures and learns about growing nutrients and medicines in space. There’s a new plant experiment running on the International Space Station, and exciting news from ESA.

Header image: NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio uses a video camera to photograph the Ant Forage Habitat. Image credit: NASA

Hello! Welcome to Gardeners off World. The big news for space gardeners this week is that NASA has determined that the salads grown in Veggie are safe to eat. And a team of Russian researchers have developed a prototype for an orbital greenhouse. The Orbital Biological Automatic Module includes smart lighting to accelerate plant growth, specialised hydroponics, automated irrigation and harvesting solutions. It could be heading to the International Space Station (ISS) – “Humanity’s home in Low Earth Orbit” – in the next few years.

Rupesh Paudyal, University of Leeds

Hello! Welcome to Gardeners Off World. This week we’ll start with a musical interlude, as violinist Lindsey Stirling recently performed her song, Artemis, on top of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center:

Back at the beginning of December, I mentioned that astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) were hoping to have flowers in bloom for the new year. After successfully growing a second crop of lettuce in the Veggie growing system on board, they were trying their hand at something more complicated. Coaxing a plant into flowering in space has been done before, but it’s trickier than just growing leaves – but it’s something we’re going to have to crack if we want to be space farmers. We need flowers before we can grow fruits and grains, and we also need to be able to produce seeds in space if living away from the Earth is to be sustainable.

Over the past few months I have been looking at how future space missions might be able to grow and raise their own food, so I thought it might be nice today to see how the astronauts on the ISS are feeding themselves this Thanksgiving. They’re lucky – they don’t have to eat worms! NASA has supplied them with a special Thanksgiving meal that includes ‘traditional’ dishes: irradiated smoked turkey, thermostabilized candied yams and freeze-dried green beans and mushrooms. Dessert features thermostabilized cherry-blueberry cobbler.” Yum.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, your round-up of interplanetary news and views. NASA’s Christina Koch returned to Earth yesterday, after spending 328 days onboard the International Space Station (ISS) – the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Koch participated in three expeditions – 59, 60 and 61 – during her first spaceflight. ESA’s Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov came home on the same flight.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners off World! On 15 February, the NG-13 cargo ship blasted off from NASA Wallops on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). It arrived on 18 February, where NASA astronaut Drew Morgan caught it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Gardeners of the Galaxy has completed its first solar orbit! Join Emma the Space Gardener for a birthday celebration and learn how GotG got started, hear the story of a space plants experiment you’ll never forget, and find out which plant Emma would choose to take into space.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! Emma’s guest on this week’s show is Dr Gioia Massa, a Project Scientist at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, working on the Veggie growing system on the International Space Station. Gioia talks about the challenges of growing plants in space, those blooming space zinnias, and when we might see astronauts eating their first space tomato!

This week, Gardeners Off World is blasting off to celebrate an off-world Thanksgiving. Let’s rehydrate some turkey!

It’s Day 19 of the Great British Blast Off, and crew is finding it hard to adjust to life in the isolation of space. Mission Control is having trouble controlling its Isonauts, many of whom keep popping out of the airlock on “essential business”. Some of the Space Dogs are complaining of exhaustion from all the extra spacewalks.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores cultivating the cosmos, planting planets and sowing seeds in space. The second episode of Gardeners of the Galaxy includes a look at the current state of plant experiments on the International Space Station, a rundown of the missions on their way to Mars and a sneak peek at the future of space chillies. And there’s a seed giveaway too!

Welcome to a special Valentine’s edition of Gardeners off World, where love is definitely in the recycled air!