Space Salad: Chinese astronauts grew, harvested tomatoes, lettuce on board the Tiangong Station

In a promising development for prospective space travellers and future cosmic restaurants, humanity is on the brink of salads and meals with freshly harvested ingredients from the cosmos. As reported by Space.com, the astronauts of China’s Shenzhou 16 mission successfully returned to Earth late last night, marking the conclusion of their multi-month space odyssey. However, the real excitement stemmed from their presentation of freshly grown lettuce and tomatoes, cultivated aboard the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) Tiangong space station. According to Space.com’s account, the cultivation journey began in June when the crew planted lettuce, resulting in a bountiful yield of four distinct batches. In a later phase, cherry tomatoes and delectable green onions were added to the orbiting garden, commencing in August. Much like NASA, China’s space mission to nurture off-world crops stands as a pivotal component of the nation’s aspiration to send astronauts on extended deep space voyages. The rationale behind this agricultural endeavour is that any genuinely prolonged space mission would necessitate the ability to generate sustenance locally, without reliance on imports from Earth. Yang Renze, a researcher from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, emphasized the significance of their vegetable cultivation apparatus, stating, “This vegetable cultivation apparatus is a key part of the whole Environmental Control and Life Support System, and it is used in space to verify the relevant technologies.” Yang’s statement was made to China Central Television, as reported by Space.com, and he also shared their future focus on rapid and large-scale cultivation. As Yang mentioned, food production plays a vital role in the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). These systems are crucial for creating safe, habitable, and sustainable environments that enable human survival in space for extended durations. According to Yang’s remarks on CCTV, having plants on board the spacecraft serves multiple functions within the Tiangong station’s ECLSS. “As a key part of the ECLSS,” Yang explained to the state media outlet, “the plants grown from the cultivation apparatus can absorb carbon dioxide in the air to generate oxygen with photosynthesis, and then regenerate and purify water with transpiration.” To assess the growth and performance of these celestial crops compared to their terrestrial counterparts, the China Astronaut Research and Training Center maintains an identical replica of Tiangong’s gardening system. Within this facility, the same plants are cultivated as those nurtured by astronauts in space, providing a controlled environment for evaluating differences in the orbital harvests. The development of these systems holds paramount importance for China, particularly as it pursues its ambitions of embarking on deep space missions and establishing lunar surface bases. As Yang continued, “The system can be applied to the field of deep space exploration, including our crewed lunar and Mars landing missions,” hinting at the nation’s aspirations to extend its reach to Mars in the future.