Orbital farmer
As an orbital farmer you would tend crops that have no idea which way is up – and you would celebrate every leaf of lettuce as if it were a harvest festival.
What has already grown in space
Plants have been grown in orbit since the Soviet Salyut stations of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1982 the small cress-like plant Arabidopsis became the first to complete its life cycle in space, from seed to seed. On the International Space Station, NASA’s Veggie unit, installed in 2014, has produced lettuce, mustard greens, kale and zinnias; in August 2015 astronauts officially ate space-grown red romaine lettuce for the first time.
The larger Advanced Plant Habitat is a nearly automated growth chamber with sensors and cameras. In 2021 it produced Hatch green chillies, which the crew turned into space tacos.
Farming without soil or gravity
Without gravity, water does not drain through soil, and roots do not know which way to grow. Space farms use rooting pillows, hydroponics or aeroponics to deliver water and nutrients, LEDs tuned to red and blue wavelengths for photosynthesis, and fans to move air, because without convection a plant can smother in its own humid bubble of air. Plants still orient towards light and grow roots away from it.
Problems are real: Veggie crops have been affected by fungal growth, and overwatering or drying out can kill a crop quickly.
A bigger future farm (speculation)
On a future station, a farmer might grow fast, compact crops – leafy greens, dwarf wheat, potatoes, soybeans, herbs and tomatoes – in stacked racks like the vertical farms now appearing on Earth. Plants would also help recycle air and water. Even so, it would take a very large growing area to feed a crew entirely, so for the foreseeable future fresh crops would add vitamins and morale rather than replacing packaged food. Crews consistently say tending plants is one of the most pleasant parts of life in orbit.
