Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “How astronauts can get a taste of steak in space”.
When we send people to deep space, we can’t carry a ton of stuff with us. There’s only so much room on a rocket right And food takes up a lot of space. And it can break down over time.. But one thing we can send with us are super lightweight seeds to grow plants.. That’S why we’re here at Kennedy Space Center to learn how to grow yummy food in space and on other planets.
( upbeat music ) In order to grow plants, you need soil right. Well, there’s some problems with that. Technically on the moon and mars: it’s not really a soil. Okay., A soil by definition, has organic material in it.
The surface of the moon and Mars? Doesn’T so they’re really regolith., It’s got nothing.. It’S crushed volcanic rock for the most part. And there’s components in that chemicals in that that are not conducive to plant growth.. So, especially when we go to Mars.
We’Re gon na have to figure out if we wan na use the martian regolith as a medium to grow plants. In. We’re gon na have to convert that regolith into a soil. A usable soil., [, Loren ] Right and aren’t there some problems: [ Ralph ], Yes., [, Loren, ], Already associated with using that soil. Isn’T it a little bit toxic [ Ralph ] Yeah, the perchlorates that are in the martian soils are a real problem for plant growth. [ Loren ] Perchlorates are a type of salt. NASA’s, Phoenix, Lander and Curiosity Rover both found signatures of the chemical on Mars. And That’S not great news.
High levels of perchlorates are toxic to humans, which could make growing food on the red planet problematic., But NASA’s thinking of ways to clean the perchlorates by washing them away with chemical solutions.. There’S perchlorates in the environment on earth and their scientists have already developed methods for remediating those perchlorates using microbes. Okay. [ Ralph ].
So, theoretically we could go up there and use either chemical or microbial solutions to mitigate the microbes.. So, at the end of the day, it might just be better not to use soil at all than to actually try and clean the potentially toxic Mars soil.. Of course, you can always bring soil from Earth., But that’s not really a great option either because it weighs so much. NASA’s. Looking into other options for growing plants that don’t use soil., We have you know a basic soil here., But picking it up. That’S pretty heavy., And this isn’t even a very big box.. Well, even today, in controlled environment, agriculture, they’re getting away from using soil as a medium to grow plants in. They wan na go to things that are basically hydroponically grown aeroponically grown.
You wan na minimize the resources, even today on the ground to grow things in.. So we’re gon na be looking at using some of that type of technology in spaceflight, so we can eliminate the medium of soil. [ Loren ] NASA is testing hydroponics, a method for growing that has gained popularity among terrestrial farmers in the past few years. And also Aeroponics as gravity or a lack thereof presents its own challenges., So we’re growing things in kind of a modified hydroponics way right, now., So hydroponics is growing plants without soil.
And generally on Earth. This is using a nutrient solution, a liquid solution of nutrients., And sometimes you use a substrate like a baked clay or a gravel or a sand.. Sometimes you can just use water and nutrient solution., And so we’re testing different ways of doing this, both for a surface system like Mars, where you have some gravity. And for microgravity in space., So without gravity you get some really interesting.
Challenges. You get very different. Behavior of fluids., So water and air have been our biggest challenges, especially in the root zone. Watering, your plants.
And when we figure that out that’s gon na be huge. [, Loren, ], Hydroponics, delivers water and nutrients to plant roots using a liquid, solution. And aeroponics takes it one step further.. Instead of using a solution, plants are grown in a misty air.
Environment. Aside from hydroponics, researchers are also testing what environments plants will thrive in best by testing different lights and temperatures., Including environments similar to that of the ISS.. Our main goal right now is to produce safe, nutritious and appealing food for the crew to supplement a packaged. Diet., So they have a really good packaged diet..
They have several hundred foods. And they’re, actually really tasty.. They do a lot of evaluation to make sure that they’re going to be very delicious for the crew.. When we go to Mars, we need a diet. That’S going to be good for five years., Right. And some of the vitamins don’t last that long in the packaged food. So we’re looking at. Can we use supplemental food production crops, plants to add more flavor, more texture and more nutrients to that diet.? I couldn’t leave without getting a taste of these plants.
Time to eat., Basically we’re just gon na cut the leaves off and put’em in these little pots. Here. That’S all we have to do. Okay great., So these are microgreens, so we’re gon na try. Here, we’ve got a little bit of broccoli, a little bit of cauliflower., So microgreens actually started life as garnishes in high-end restaurants. You’ll go to a restaurant there’ll, be like a little marigold microgreen on there or something so. Right. Now, it’s the meal., It’s the meal. It’S the accent for food. [, Loren ]. The biggest benefit of microgreens is that they can be harvested in a very short amount of time.. So you don’t have to wait weeks or months before you can eat them., [, Matthew, ], Here’s, our famous steak, plant.
Amara mustard, is what it’s called.. It’S also know as Ethiopian kale. Medium rare., That weirdly does taste like steak.. It’S got that umami flavor to it.. It takes a while to kick in yeah. Figuring out how to grow. Fresh food in space is not only important for the nutritional value it will provide, but the psychological value it has as well. When you’re on Mars, you’re, not gon na, be looking down on earth.
So I think the plants are gon na be really important for those reasons, as well. Yeah. Like having a little taste of home almost. Exactly., While humans have explored and adapted to new environments, many times before with space, we won’t be able to rely on the resources.
We are accustomed to here on Earth. Growing food is going to be incredibly difficult and we’ll have to figure out how to be self sufficient in entirely new ways., Because this is an entirely new frontier.. Hey everyone thanks! So much for watching our video.. If you want more science content, like this, be sure to check out our Verge Science, YouTube channel. I’ll, see ya there. .