The Dragon spacecraft went into space in mid-April, and carried inside the Veg-01 or Veggie project as it is also called already began testing in space with growing plants, in this case a variety of lettuce.

NASA reported that the first production system for fresh food in space, was activated by astronauts Steve Swanson and Rick Mastracchio and already cultivating red roman lettuce.

"Veggie" is a low-cost incubator using a panel with light emitting diodes (LED) red, blue and green for growing plants. Its design allows folding for storage and transport and then expands up to 45 inches as the plants grow inside.

On May 8, Swanson activated lights, plants inserted in the camera and took 100 milliliters of water in each to initiate growth. The same are doing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to compare the growth of lettuce.

It is expected that the duration of the mission, pictures are taken weekly, and water is added periodically. Also consider if the lettuce grown in space are safe to eat, by analyzing samples, verify that there are no microorganisms that can be growing plants.

At the end of the cycle, plants are carefully harvested, frozen and stored to bring them back to Earth later this year and completion of studies.

As the aim of this project is that a crew to grow and use fresh vegetables regularly, so this type of systems will become an important component against any scenario exploration of long duration.

traslation: Belén Zapata