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Future Mars astronauts’ diet will likely include space lettuce

Future astronauts on Mars could grow their own lettuce for salads. Credit: NASA

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6 years ago

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Elon Musk wants to send a million people to Mars, and we would love to see that happen sooner rather than later.

But what will we feed them?

Since 2014, NASA has been busy studying the development of different types of plants on the space station. Using a special plant-growth chamber, called Veggie, the agency is trying to perfect the art of making space salad.

A new study published last week in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science explains that lettuce grown in space is as nutritious and tasty as any variety grown on Earth.

“The ability to grow safe, fresh food to supplement packaged foods of astronauts in space has been an important goal for NASA,” reads the paper.

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Currently, astronauts on the space station rely on prepackaged food to sustain them during their time on orbit. (They also enjoy occasional treats sent up on cargo resupply missions, such as fresh fruit.) But with the help of plant chambers like Veggie, astronauts could one day crunch on healthy salads.

Veggie is a special plant growth chamber installed on the ISS to test how well crops grow in space. Credit: NASA

Packaged foods are nutritious enough, but do not have everything a person needs (or wants). The ability to have fresh fruits and vegetables on Mars could do wonders for an astronaut’s health. Not only do plants provide key nutrients, but they could also help life-support systems on any potential Mars city by helping to scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

NASA and other space agencies around the world have been studying plants in space almost as long as we’ve been sending astronauts to space. But with the construction of the space station and advent of the veggie chamber, the research can track growth over longer periods and with more crops.

Organisms grow differently in space, so understanding how plants respond to microgravity is an important step toward ensuring that future astronauts will have the ability to grow their own crops in space, especially as we start sending humans back to the moon and onto Mars.

From 2014 to 2016, researchers sent batches of “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce seeds to space, to see if and how well they grew inside the Veggie chamber. In space there’s no gravity or soil or rain like the plants here on Earth rely on. There’s also 16 sun rises and sun sets in space, so the crops will need steady light to help them grow. Where does that come from?

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The Veggie chamber is outfitted with special LED lights, tuned to a specific wavelength in order to help the plants grow. (Set to 16 hours of  light and 8 hours of darkness.) Plant pillows are placed in the chamber, each equipped with its own water supply, fertilizer, and seeds. The astronauts can control the amount of water each plant receives and other settings like humidity.

The lettuce plants were allowed to grow for approximately one month before being harvested and sent back to Earth for testing. (Yes, the astronauts were allow to eat some, after they were deemed safe.)

When compared to ground-based experiments, researchers found that the crops contained the same level of nutrients that the terrestrial crops did. (Not to mention the same microbes.) The only recorded differences was a slight variation in mineral content, in particular in iron, potassium, and zinc.

A crop of red lettuce grows inside the Veggie plant chamber. Credit: NASA

But what about other vegetables? Growing lettuce is easy, growing things like peppers and tomatoes are a bit more tricky. Mostly because they take a lot longer to grow — 80 days versus 30. 

To date, NASA has grown five different varieties of leafy green in the Veggie chamber. (The agency is also researching other plants across several experiments.)

NASA’s plant researchers are busy designing the next iterations of their plant experiments, with plans to send both chili peppers and tomatoes to the orbital outpost later this year and early next year. If those grow successfully, we could soon see the first space salads.

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I write about space, science, and future tech.

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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck fleet takes over at SpaceX’s Starbase

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

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1 day ago

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November 3, 2025

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Credit: @derek1ee | X

Tesla Cybertrucks have taken over at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, as hundreds of the all-electric pickup trucks were spotted late last week rounding out a massive fleet of vehicles.

The Cybertruck fleet is geared toward replacing gas vehicles that are used at Starbase for everyday operations. The only surprise about this is that it was not done sooner:

Deliveries have been going on for a few weeks, as Cybertrucks have made their way across the state of Texas from Austin to Starbase so they could be included in SpaceX’s fleet of vehicles at the facility.

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Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

However, there are some other perspectives to consider as SpaceX is utilizing such a massive fleet of Cybertrucks. Some media outlets (unsurprisingly) are seeing this as a move of weakness by both Tesla and SpaceX, as the aerospace company is, in a sense, “bailing out” lagging sales for the all-electric pickup.

It’s no secret that Tesla has struggled with the Cybertruck this year, and deliveries have been underwhelming in the sense that the company was anticipating between 1 million and 2 million orders for the vehicle before it was widely produced.

A lot of things changed with the Cybertruck between its 2019 unveiling and 2023 initial deliveries, most notably, price.

The price of the Cybertruck swelled significantly and priced out many of those who had pre-ordered it. Some have weighed the option of whether this purchase was a way to get rid of sitting inventory.

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However, it seems more logical to consider the fact that SpaceX was likely always going to transition to Teslas for its fleet, especially at Starship, at some point.

It doesn’t seem out of the question that one Musk company would utilize another Musk company’s products, especially considering the Cybertruck has been teased as the vehicle that would be present on Mars.

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SpaceX opens up free Starlink service for those impacted by Hurricane Melissa

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1 week ago

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October 28, 2025

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

SpaceX is opening up its internet service, Starlink, to those impacted by Hurricane Melissa, as it made landfall in Jamaica and the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm.

Hurricane Melissa is expected to reach wind speeds of over 165 MPH over the next few days as it extends out into the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday and Friday.

Citizens in Jamaica and the Bahamas have been preparing for the storm for the past week, getting necessary goods together and preparing for the massive storm to arrive. It finally did yesterday, and the first images and video of the storm are showing that it could destroy many parts of both countries.

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Starlink is now being opened up for free until the end of November for those impacted by the storm in Jamaica and the Bahamas, SpaceX announced today:

It is a move similar to the one the company made last year as Hurricane Helene made its way through the United States, destroying homes and property across the East Coast. SpaceX offered free service for those impacted by the destruction caused by the storm.

The free Starlink service was available until the end of 2024.

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Elon Musk’s companies have also made similar moves to help out those who are impacted by natural disasters. Tesla has offered Free Supercharging in the past, most notably during the California wildfires.

Tesla and SpaceX’s LA fire relief efforts: Cybertrucks, free Starlink and more

One major advantage of Starlink is that it is available for use in situations like this one, where power might be required to operate things like a modem and router.

Internet access is a crucial part of survival in these situations, especially as it can be the last leg some stand on to get in touch with emergency services or loved ones.

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SpaceX reaches incredible Starlink milestone

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1 week ago

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October 26, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has reached an incredible milestone with its Starlink program, officially surpassing 10,000 satellites launched into low Earth orbit since starting the program back in 2019.

Last Sunday, October 19, SpaceX launched its 131st and 132nd Falcon 9 missions of 2025, one from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the other from Vandenberg, California.

The 10,000th Starlink satellite was aboard the launch from California, which was Starlink 11-19, and held 28 v2 mini optimized satellites.

The achievement was marked by a satellite tracker developed by Jonathan McDowell.

The first Starlink launch was all the way back on May 23, 2019, as SpaceX launched its first 60 satellites from Cape Canaveral using a Falcon 9 rocket.

Of the over 10,000 satellites in orbit, the tracker says 8,608 are operational, as some are intentionally de-orbited after becoming faulty and destroyed in the atmosphere.

SpaceX has truly done some really incredible things during its development of the Starlink program, including launch coverage in a global setting, bringing along millions of active subscribers that use the service for personal and business use, locking up commercial partnerships, and more.

Starlink currently operates in around 150 countries, territories, and markets and is available at least somewhere on all seven continents.

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Additionally, Starlink has over 5 million subscribers worldwide, and 2.7 million have joined the program over the past year. It has revolutionized internet access on commercial aircraft as well, as several high-profile airlines like Qatar and United, among many others, have already installed Starlink on some of their planes to deliver more stable connectivity for passengers and crew.

SpaceX has the approval to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites from the FAA, but it plans to bring over 30,000 to its constellation, giving anyone the ability to have access to high-speed internet.

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