The International Space Station has a new means of growing vegetables with NASA’s Vegetable Production System. The system is installed on SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule and features a plant growth chamber that will be used to grow lettuce exclusively for the time being.
The growth chamber, capable of growing to 11.5 inches wide and 14.5 inches deep, allows plants to withstand zero gravity using red, blue and green LEDs.
The VEGGIE project represents the largest plant growth chamber ever in space and looks to provide a wide variety of vegetable for astronauts once testing with lettuce is complete.
Maybe we will see an uptick in astronaut gardening in the near future:
