Curious Facts

Space Radishes: NASA's Attempt to Grow Food in Space

By Eloísa Carmona - 2020-12-08T15:52:59Z
If during these days of staying home one of your plans was to plant some vegetables or fruits, you were not alone, as they also set out to grow their own food in the International Space Station, and specifically, this month they harvested their first radishes.But radishes are not the only thing that has been harvested in space, as according to a NASA fact sheet, 11 experiments have been completed on growing vegetables for human consumption as part of a program. The first harvest took place in 2015 and was red romaine lettuce, and before the radishes, Mizuna mustard was harvested in 2019.NASA chose radishes this year because they mature in less than a month and have a sensitive bulb formation that allows for the analysis of CO2 effects, and the acquisition and distribution of minerals. Nicole Dufour, the program manager, stated that harvesting a variety of crops helps us determine which plants thrive in microgravity and provide the best variety and nutritional balance for astronauts on long-duration missions.It was astronaut Kate Rubins who cut the radishes on Monday, December 7, and in NASA's YouTube channel, you can see in 10 seconds the 27 days of growth in the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) inside the International Space Station.Moreover, these space radishes will not be the only ones, as NASA says they will plant and harvest a second round of this vegetable before sending both batches to Earth, to compare them with a third set of control radishes, but grown on solid ground.What is expected from these crops in space is that they help NASA achieve its sustainable exploration of the Moon by the end of the decade, thus allowing for greater extensions of space from there.Below you can see how radishes grow in space, and if after reading this you feel like having some, we also leave you a few recipes to enjoy them.Radish and Cucumber SnackRadish Snack