The astronauts on International Space Station began eating lettuce grown in space

The first fresh food production system in space  was sent to the ISS last April. It ‘s a collapsible, expandable unit that uses red, blue, and green LEDs to grow plants. And it was a success ! They said the first ever space-grown lettuce, purplish-green as aspect, consummed  with  extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar was good. The lettuce grew for 33 days. Astronauts love their veggies. But only half of the lettuce production is set aside to be consumed, the rest will be sent back home, on Earth, for further study. The first crop of produce for Veg-01 was planted in May 2014 and returned to Earth in October for safety testing. Why is this so important, however ? NASA wants to use Veggie to eventually provide pioneers to Mars with the means of growing sustainable food for deep space missions. Growing food in a low-gravity environment with little sun or water is a bit more complicated and more experiments are needed. But tomatoes, blueberries and red lettuce are a good source of antioxidants.