海角大神

Father, aerospace engineer, and astronaut Michael Hopkins returns to Earth Saturday after six months aboard the International Space Station. And Colonel Hopkins can now add 鈥渟pace gardener鈥� to his r茅sum茅.聽

While orbiting our planet at about 17,100 miles per hour, the American astronaut has grown two varieties of lettuce, Amara mustard and extra dwarf pak choi.聽

The space station crew recently finished savoring the last of the . Apart from giving astronauts a delicious break from food in a tube, NASA is learning how to grow pick-and-eat crops to feed crews on multiyear Mars missions.聽

NASA has worked with 聽that will thrive in a microgravity garden. Previous space station crews have grown radishes, soybeans, and wheat (which grew 10% taller in space).聽

But NASA has another motivation, which echoes why so many people stuck at home on Spaceship Earth have been growing veggies during the pandemic: Gardening feeds the soul. It nourishes a sense of hope. And there鈥檚 something inherently therapeutic about caring for another life form.聽

鈥淓ven though astronauts can鈥檛 run to the supermarket for fresh produce during a two-year mission to Mars, they could float into a module that has the same smell and feel of the produce section,鈥� Colonel Hopkins says. 鈥�.鈥�