Space tomatoes are ready for an unprecedented mission

Here on Earth, tomatoes grow best in fertile soil that is rich in nutrients like potassium and phosphorus. But can we grow tomatoes in the weightless environment of space?

Thanks to a dedicated team of scientists, space-grown tomatoes will soon become a reality.

Tomato plants are ready for launch

Imagine biting into a fresh, juicy tomato cultivated on an extraterrestrial station orbiting 260 miles above our planet.

This isn’t a distant futuristic vision but an emerging reality, with specially engineered tomato plants set to embark on a journey to the International Space Station (ISS).

These are no ordinary tomatoes. Compact, engineered to thrive in minimal space, and painstakingly developed for astronomic growth, these plants are setting a course for the International Space Station (ISS).

The tomatoes are currently under observation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a payload flight scheduled within the next year or so.

Growing tomatoes in space

The journey will initiate an unprecedented event – these tomato seeds will germinate and bear fruit on the ISS, within its Advanced Plant Habitat laboratory.

The seeds from this first-generation space fruit will then plant the roots for a second generation of tomatoes in the stars.

“So, it’s going to be a seed-to-a-seed-to-a-seed, which has never been done before in space,” noted Robert Jinkerson, a professor in the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering at UC Riverside.

But why tomatoes, you ask? Designed to bear fruit in compact spaces, these plants are potential food sources for astronauts – a development years in the making.

SPACE technology

The remarkable research was led by Martha Orozco-Cárdenas of UCR’s Plant Transformation Research Center. Using CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, Orozco-Cárdenas downsized ordinary tomato plants, reducing the leaf to fruit ratio.

Backed by an $800,000 grant from the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health, further engineering led to the creation of the space-ready tomatoes.

Known as Small Plants for Space Expeditions (SPACE), this technology could extend to other crops on the ISS and future space colonies.

Exploring space-grown foods

Tomatoes may have company soon. The UCR team is exploring options to grow edible yeast, green algae, and mushrooms in space. Their efforts were recognized when they won $250,000 in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge.

The unprecedented research relies on innovative techniques. Eschewing sunlight, a key element for most agricultural cultivation, the team grows mushrooms using acetate, a carbon-based compound. The result – an estimated production of about 4,000 calories per day, surpassing the productivity of biological photosynthesis.

Environment-adaptive agriculture

The research bears significant implications for earthly agriculture too. Compact, indoor-growing crops could be the future of urban agriculture. Vertical farming, with multilayered hydroponically-fed crops, may also play a role in the forthcoming agricultural revolution.

The SPACE tomato, adapted to thrive in confined spaces, could soon become available for urban farming. This innovation becomes crucial in regions experiencing climate changes that make outdoor cultivation untenable.

The research team is working towards cultivating food-producing organisms in the dark using acetate as their sole source of carbon and energy, sidestepping the need for photosynthesis.

Gearing up for the green revolution

Despite being able to grow yeast, mushrooms, and green algae in the dark feeding on acetate, growing tomatoes and other crops under these conditions remains a hurdle due to the toxicity of acetate to adult plants.

The researchers are exploring solutions, aiming to engineer metabolic processes found in germinating seeds that can utilize acetate. Such dark cultivation could revolutionize agriculture by enabling more widespread indoor cultivation wherever electricity is available.

This would increase the efficiency of food production, reduce agricultural land use, and mitigate its environmental impact. For space agriculture, this increased energy efficiency could help feed more crew members with fewer resources.

Ultimately, the next technological breakthrough in agriculture might well come from a humble tomato plant, grown in the controlled environment of a space station.

As we grapple with the challenges of climate change and a rapidly expanding global population, the cosmic tomato could be a critical ingredient in the recipe for a sustainable future.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–