Cyprien Verseux, a Ph.D. student majoring in biology, has spent years studying how to grow lettuce on a sloping volcano called Mauna Loa in the Hawaiian archipelago at 8,000 feet above sea level. He explained that Cyprien Verseux’s research was not very important in getting to the planets, but that it would be difficult to deliver enough of the basic food and oxygen needed for humans if space were to expand.
Since 2014, seed-based methods have been used on the ISS. The program, called Veggie, was led by Gioia Massa, a botanist at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The veggie is simple and easy to use. A mini-refrigerator-sized, easy-to-carry greenhouse for astronauts. There are small bags of seedlings. The bags of these seedlings also contain special fertilizers. It is a program that adjusts LED lights and electric fans to accommodate the growth of seedlings when in space.