Scientists have successfully grown vegetables at the International Space Station, and nobody has keeled over from eating them yet! If Michael Pollan starred in Gravity instead of George Clooney, this might have been the result.
Chief research associate Margarita Levinskikh told an audience at Moscow State Technical Institute that 23 plant-growing experiments have been performed in microgravitation, and everything turned out shipshape:
“The plants have been very developed, absolutely normal and did not differ a lot from the plants grown on Earth,” said Margarita Levinskikh of the Institute of Biological Problems to the Russian radio show The Voice of Russia.
Astronauts have also reportedly eaten the vegetables, which included peas, dwarf wheat, and Japanese leafy greens, without any problems.
Next up on the menu are tomatoes, bell peppers, and rice — unprecedented in space gardening. If astronauts can keep the food from floating away, it sounds like the recipe for a delicious antigravity stir-fry.
