• Question: How is it possible to test food plants we grow in space to see if they're safe?

    Asked by spacefan226 to Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Col Op, Kirsty, Vinita on 16 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by ._..
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      The plants do get tested to make sure they are safe to eat- and the salad that was grown on ISS was safe, so the astronauts had a salad 🙂

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      There is a greenhouse on the Russian side of the International Space Station that has been growing food plants in space since 2002.

      And.. well, officially they weren’t supposed to eat any, but cosmonauts have tasted them the whole time and said the food is good and they are all still healthy so I guess food grown in space is safe!

      Last year NASA used a module in ESA’s Columbus to grown one lettuce and everyone tasted it including a cosmonaut who had been on previous flights and tasted lots of different space grown lettuces. The cosmonaut said the lettuce grown in the European module was his favourite so far.

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