NASA Plans To Use Lettuce To Keep Astronauts Healthy

One of the most challenging obstacles to overcome for long-term missions into deep space is keeping astronauts healthy. One of the big challenges for sending humans to Mars is fighting bone loss that could make the bones of astronauts fragile.

NASA believes it has a solution for the risk of bone loss in astronauts by growing special lettuce. The American Chemical Society meeting held recently saw the presentation of a blueprint for a new transgenic lettuce.

It’s similar to the lettuce we already know and eat in salads but is genetically engineered to prevent bone loss. The crop can also be grown in space. Scientists on the project set it’s a very cost-effective and simple way to make a therapeutic.

Research has shown that exercising is insufficient to prevent bone density reductions on the ISS. Currently, the astronauts take injections to help increase their bone density, but simply eating a salad might do the same thing in the future.