Of Popular Mechanics
Take a seat at the astronaut cafe. What’s on the menu, questions? Duckweed salad. Duckweed soup. Duckweed tortillas.
A small protein-packed plant called duckweed may be the ticket to a nutritious meal in space, writes Barbara Demmig-Adams, professor of plant ecology and molecular biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. The conversation.
NASA and the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, a cooperative led by researchers at Caltech, MIT, and Baylor College of Medicine, turned to Demmig-Adams and his laboratory to investigate a leafy puzzle: What nutrient-packed plants could grow astronauts with limited resources in the confines of their spaceships?
Duckweed is. Commonly found in ponds and fish tanks, duckweed is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, and the richest in protein. This is good news for future astronauts who may be assigned the task of exploring the far reaches of the solar system.
Furthermore, duckweed could help astronauts combat the effects of solar and cosmic radiation. The plant is packed with powerful antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, which have been shown to reduce inflammation and support eye health, a critical concern for NASA astronauts.
The difficult thing about growing duckweed (and all plants) in space is getting the right conditions to maximize productivity and nutrient growth. Duckweed needs a lot of bright light to produce its rich set of antioxidants. This could represent a challenge for astronauts.
For years, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have used their green thumbs to cultivate small green leafy crops. For example, the University of Wisconsin The Advanced Astroculture ™ project, which seeks to understand the effects of microgravity on plant growth, has submitted plants as Arabidopsis thaliana (a variety of mustard plant) and soybeans to the ISS.
Astronauts have tended to sunflowers, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and kale. The famous astronaut Scott Kelly took a famous photo of a bouquet of zinnias floating 250 miles above Earth.
In addition to the benefits these plants provide to an astronaut’s diet, caring for the plants themselves has provided space travelers with a relaxing and rewarding hobby.
Back on Earth, some laboratories are modifying plants in the real genome to optimize them for growth in orbit. A team of researchers from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have developed a type of cherry tomato that, to conserve space, grows in tight clusters on short vines.
Demmig-Adams and colleagues are exploring the best possible ways to grow duckweed. First, they grew plants in sterile water, and then they will experiment with introducing different microbes into the environment.
The team is also testing the limits of the light-loving plant by growing it in different lighting conditions. It turns out that even in low-intensity light environments, duckweed produces more zeaxanthin than similar plants on sunny days.
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