NASA Astronauts Harvest Delicious Space Vegetables, Sans Soil

Earthly space travelers have been trying to perfect their science for a long time. Though the International Space Station has seen a few successful low-orbit gardening endeavors, all have used some sort of soil or growth media.

Thanks to Jessica Watkins, that could be changing. Watkins has begun to harvest radishes and Mizuna greens on the International Space Station.

Growing food in space is exciting, but using growth materials that are dirt-like can cause problems. Watkins' crop could be a big step towards a new age of discovery.

Space Veggies

The XROOTS system helped Watkins grow the vegetables. XROOTS uses only Hydroponic and Aeroponic techniques to support a plant through all stages of growth.

According to NASA, the system was created by a private sector company called Sierra Space and contains a number of different "independent growth chambers" that allow astronauts to test a variety of soil-free, air-and-water based concoctions on different types of plants.

We're still waiting for a full review of the off-planet veggies, and it doesn't seem like the machine is ready to feed a village. The XROOTS experiment was just launched back in February and we're looking forward to any other crops and discoveries it might yield and the tech it could make possible down the road.

Bad news on off-world plant life. Plants grown in moon soil turned out badly.