The capability to grow nutritious palatable food for crew consumption during spaceflight has the potential to provide health promoting bioavailable nutrients enhance the dietary experience and…

The capability to grow nutritious palatable food for crew consumption during spaceflight has the potential to provide health promoting bioavailable nutrients enhance the dietary experience and reduce launch mass as we move toward longer-duration missions. However studies of edible produce during spaceflight have been limited leaving a significant knowledge GAP in the methods required to grow safe acceptable nutritious crops for consumption in microgravity. The veggie vegetable-production system on the international space station (ISS) offers an opportunity to develop a pick-and-eat fresh vegetable component to the ISS food system as a first step to bioregenerative supplemental food production. We propose growing salad plants in the veggie unit during spaceflight focusing on the impact of light quality and fertilizer formulation on crop morphology edible biomass yield microbial food safety organoleptic acceptability nutritional value and behavioral health benefits of the fresh produce. Phase a of the project would involve flight tests using leafy greens. Phase b would focus on dwarf tomato. Our work will help define light colors levels and horticultural best practices to achieve high yields of safe nutritious leafy greens and tomatoes to supplement a space diet of prepackaged food. Our final deliverable will be the development of growth protocols for these crops in a spaceflight vegetable production system.