The world is not the only place where people want to grow sustainable food sources. Humans will need the ability to grow their own food in order to embark on long-duration space missions.
There’s no way astronauts can gather enough food to sustain a mission to Mars (via China Daily). On Monday, China announced the success of growing rice aboard the Tiangong space station. Moreover, Chinese astronauts have had other successes growing food crops in space. Peas, dwarf wheat, and leafy greens successfully fruited on the International Space Station in 2014 (per US Rice). Chinese astronauts have been working off-planet to grow rice since 2016.
The important thing about this experiment is the ultimate goal: growing rice throughout the entire seed-to-seeding cycle. So far so good, plants are thriving. Two types of rice were grown, a long stem and a dwarf variety. Both seem to have grown at the same rate as the world (via University Today).
SPACE RICE
Once the seeds are harvested, astronauts will not be making risotto with them. According to China Daily, a grain of rice is the seed of the plant, and the space grains will be returned to Earth, where scientists will study the effect of microgravity on the flowering stage of the plant. How well a plant can bloom is an important determinant of its yield. Also, rice and other seeds accompanied Chinese astronauts into space to facilitate mutations that would produce better on Earth. Heralded as “space rice,” the experimental seeds have been touted as a possible way to ensure food security for China’s 1.4 billion people (according to Jaran Josh).
This isn’t Rice’s first time on a space mission. Freeze-dried chicken and rice were prepared for consumption in space in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission, which famously featured Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin. The National Air and Space Museum preserves a remnant package from the historic event.
Few of us could possibly eat rice on another planet. But in the article “What Life in Space Teach Us About Living on Earth,” PhD and author David Munns wrote that “living in space instead of just continuing to be a tourist is equivalent to continuing to live on Earth rather than just being treated.” our planet as a visitor” (via the Environment and Society Portal). Perhaps space rice will develop a better understanding of our home planet, whether grown on Earth or on a space station.