This Crazy Purple Cube Is 1 Giant Step for Space Agriculture

[n2doc]

Friday, if all goes according to plan, a SpaceX Dragon capsule will launch from Cape Canaveral, bound for the International Space Station. The capsule will be delivering supplies—2.5 tons of them—to the Station, among them a series of experimental tools designed to test things like Earth-to-space laser communication and microgravity's effects on the human aging process. Also among them, however, is a device that may be of more immediate interest to astronauts aboard the Station: the Vegetable Production System.

"Veggie," it's nicknamed, is basically a farm in the form of a transportable cube. It provides space crops with lighting and nutrient delivery, taking advantage of the Station's cabin environment for temperature control—and for carbon dioxide. The farm-in-a-box is collapsible, the better to facilitate both transportation and storage, but it expands to nearly 12 inches in width and nearly 15 inches in depth—making it the largest plant-growth chamber yet to be sent into space. "Veggie" will host science experiments that will feature, as NASA puts it, "edible results."

In other words: Earth could soon be orbited by some SpaceKale.

more

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/this-crazy-purple-cube-is-1-giant-step-for-space-agriculture/360632/

[tridim]

1. Dude... Nice garden!

JK, I love this stuff. It's so important for our future.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. It's fucking awesome but

simultaneously depressing how little we've accomplished so far... THAT cube will be the largest experiment thus far? Fuck me.

[tridim]

3. I don't see any reason why this small experiment wouldn't be scalable.

Plants adapt.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. I'm sure it is, or can be.

I'm just depressed we haven't already done much more. Like, this should be job 2 behind atmosphere/heat management. I would think.

But that's why I don't get paid the big bucks. Hell, a larger experiment was shown in the mockup-set piece for the Tiangong station in the movie Gravity, and that was supposedly set back when the Space Shuttle was still in service. :S

[TexasTowelie]

5. I hope they grow some catnip!

[toby jo]

6. NPR had a segment on the other day and a fellow was talking about how seeds that

had been sent up in space, brought back and planted, produced fruits in 3-5 years, whereas the normal development was 10 years.

They still haven't figured out why a space trip would do that. Something got rewired.

I figure every solar system has a 'sweet spot' or two where life is optimal. I'd rather focus on checking out another one of those, like earth, than trying to develop 'life' in the outer orbits of ours.

But this is a cool experiment, it'll lead to other stuff.