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By growing food on the ISS, NASA hopes to help astronauts get necessary vitamins and improve their well-being. The traditional freeze-dried meals that are regularly shipped to the ISS do not provide vitamins, nutrients, or help with astronaut's well being.

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NASA works on advancements in growing food in space.

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What foods have been grown in space so far?

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What foods have been grown in space so far?

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Onions, peas, radishes, lettuce, wheat, garlic, cucumbers, parsley, potato, dill, rice, flax, cabbage, and more.

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Marrows on Mars: China reveals plans to grow vegetables in extra-terrestrial bases

Experts have completed preliminary tests in a sealed chamber in Beijing

Claim system will provide air, water and food for astronauts on the moon or Mars

The system, which relies on plants and algae, is 'expected to be used in extra-terrestrial bases on the moon or Mars', the report said.
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'Chinese astronauts may get fresh vegetables and oxygen supplies by gardening in extra-terrestrial bases in the future,' the report said, adding that the experiment was the first of its kind in China, although other countries have tested such systems.

The Asian superpower has been ramping up its manned space activities as the United States, long the leader in the field, has scaled back some of its programmes, such as retiring its iconic space shuttle fleet.

The astronaut was launched into space and orbited the earth aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in 2003.

VIDEO: How NASA plans to grow food in space...

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Marrows on Mars: China reveals plans to grow vegetables in extra-terrestrial bases

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Experts have completed preliminary tests in a sealed chamber in Beijing Claim system will provide air, water and food for astronauts on the moon or Mars The system, which relies on plants and algae, is 'expected to be used in extra-terrestrial bases on the moon or Mars', the report said.

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When NASA sends humans to Mars, the astronauts are going to need lots of food for the trip. But freeze-dried prepackaged meals for a 2.5-year mission to the Red Planet can take up a lot of weight and room on an interplanetary vehicle. When we go to Mars, weight will be precious. The less we carry with us, the better. Plus, not all of that food is going to be super tasty - or fresh.

That's why NASA is interested in figuring out ways to supplement astronauts' diets with plants that can be grown in space or on other worlds. Seeds are much less weighty and spacious than already-prepared food. So scientists at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have been experimenting with how to grow plants and vegetables in simulated space environments. Those include the microgravity environment of the International Space Station and worlds with less gravity than Earth, like the Moon and Mars.

At Kennedy, scientists experiment with different lighting and temperatures to see which environment is best for growing plants. They also simulate the conditions on the ISS to see which plants could thrive in low Earth orbit. Ultimately, NASA is trying to figure out how to grow plants with as little soil as possible, through methods like hydroponics and aeroponics. Hydroponics involves delivering water and nutrients to plant roots using liquid solutions, and with aeroponics, plants are grown in a misty air environment. Both of these methods negate the need for too much dirt, which is also heavy and takes up precious room on a rocket.

Water does behave differently in low-gravity environments. It clumps together in weird ways that it wouldn't on Earth, making it tricky to water root plants. However, NASA has had success with growing vegetables on the International Space Station with the space agency's Veggie experiment. Through that research, astronauts have been able to grow - and eat - plants on the ISS. The first experiment entailed growing red romaine lettuce in pillows of clay instead of soil.

Scientists are interested in potentially using interplanetary soil someday to grow plants. However, the "soil" found on the Moon and Mars isn't really soil; it's regolith, or loose, rocky material made from volcanic ash that doesn't have an abundance of organic materials. And the regolith on Mars isn't exactly clean. Rovers on Mars have detected a type of salt known as perchlorates in the dirt, which can be toxic for humans if consumed in high enough quantities. It's possible that astronauts could clean the regolith with chemical solutions or certain kinds of bacteria, but that method hasn't been fully fleshed-out yet.

Mastering plant growth in space and on other worlds will be important to future crews traveling on long-duration missions off our planet. Not only is plant-based food important for nutrition, but supplementing a prepackaged diet with vegetables and greens could be important for stressed-out astronauts who are missing home. "We've heard from a lot of astronauts who comment to the effect of, 'I thought that I'd miss the cheeseburger or pizza the most when I came back, but what I really wanted was a fresh salad,'" Gioia Massa, a NASA scientist studying food production in space at the Kennedy Space Center, tells The Verge. "So, we think having that fresh, juicy, crunchy texture in their diet can be really important."

For the season finale of Space Craft, we visited Kennedy to taste some of the plants they've been experimenting with. Check out our meals in the video above.

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How NASA is learning to grow plants in space and on other worlds

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NASA is interested in figuring out ways to supplement astronauts' diets with plants that can be grown in space or on other worlds. Seeds are much less weighty and spacious than already-prepared food. So scientists at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have been experimenting with how to grow plants and vegetables in simulated space environments.

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Study shows that lettuce grown on the ISS is just as healthy as its Earth-grown counterpart

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Study shows that lettuce grown on the ISS is just as healthy as its Earth-grown counterpart

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Futurology: Back in 2015, astronauts aboard the International Space Station ate the first-ever lettuce grown in space. It was quite an accomplishment for humanity, and it reinforced beliefs that humans could one day live among the stars. Today, we've hit another, smaller milestone related to that five-year-old achievement: researchers have concluded that space-grown lettuce is just as nutritious as its Earth-grown counterpart.

This may seem like a minor development, but it proves that vegetables don't necessarily need to have access to the same conditions they have on Earth to thrive. Even without sunlight, fresh soil, and other natural resources, the red lettuce grown on the ISS had roughly the same level of nutrients you'd expect to see in produce purchased from a local grocery store; albeit with some additional microorganisms (which were perfectly safe to consume).

This is significant news for NASA and other space organizations that hope to send humanity to the Moon and Mars one day. Of course, right now, growing lettuce on the ISS isn't all that critical. While the fresh food is probably a welcome addition to the diet of the station's inhabitants, supply flights to and from the ISS happen pretty frequently. As such, ISS dwellers probably won't run the risk of running low on pre-packaged food anytime soon.

However, these pre-packaged meals could prove less practical for longer, deep-space missions. As the authors of this study (Christina Khodadad and Gioia Massa) explained to Newsweek, pre-packaged food can lose its nutritional value over time. Fresh-grown lettuce (and, eventually, other vegetables) could be a lifesaver in those situations.

We look forward to seeing this space plant growth technology evolve over the next few years. Perhaps astronauts will someday grow plants with even more nutritional value than the ones we buy here on Earth -- only time will tell.

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Study shows that lettuce grown on the ISS is just as healthy as its Earth-grown counterpart

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This may seem like a minor development, but it proves that vegetables don't necessarily need to have access to the same conditions they have on Earth to thrive. Even without sunlight, fresh soil, and other natural resources, the red lettuce…

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The first test of crops in the Advanced Plant Habitat aboard the International Space Station yielded great results.

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NASA currently has a Vegetable Production System ("Veggie") on the space station.

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A bouquet of flowers photographed in the ISS