Astronauts harvest radishes on the International Space Station

If you are a fan of the film The Martian, in which Matt Damon’s tenuous little potato crop must sustain him during his lonely years on Mars, then you know how much stakes and dramatic farming can suddenly become when taken to remote areas of our solar system. Minus the inconvenience of being lost on an alien planet, this is exactly what is happening aboard the International Space Station right now: Astronauts are growing and harvesting fresh radishes in space, the latest crop to succeed in a non-gravity environment.

CNN Reports that NASA flight engineer Kate Rubins harvested 20 radish plants this week from the space station Advanced plant habitat (APH), an LED-lit growth chamber that has previously favored lettuce, cabbage, wheat and lentils. As the variety of plants grown in space continues to increase, this is an exciting indicator that long-term missions to space and to other planets may become more achievable.

“It is a privilege to help lead a team that is paving the way for the future of space culture production for NASA’s exploration efforts,” said Nicole Dufour, APH program manager. A press release about harvesting radishes. “I have been working on APH from the start, and every new culture we can cultivate gives me great joy because what we are learning from them will help NASA send astronauts to Mars and bring them back safely.

It must also be a great week for Professor and Principal Investigator Karl Hasenstein, who, according to the press release, has been conducting plant experiments with NASA since 1995 (!!). For someone who has devoted over a quarter of a century to weightless grow environments, radishes are a particularly illuminating crop.

“Radishes offer great research potential due to their sensitive bulb formation,” Hasenstein said. “We can grow 20 plants in the APH, analyze the effects of CO2, as well as the acquisition and distribution of minerals.”

Missions to the Moon and Mars are even more of an imminent reality now, thanks to these humble radishes. Now, for the sake of the astronauts, we also need to learn how to dress them with garlic or good zero-G brown butter. Does the space station have a good roasting pan?