Astronauts can’t enjoy the bliss of home cooking in space, but they may soon be able to eat heartier and healthier meals with one staple ingredient as the star: rice. The simple crop has the potential to become an essential space food, which is why scientists are intent on genetically tailoring the perfect rice to be grown beyond our planet.
A collaboration between the Italian Space Agency and three Italian universities — dubbed the Moon-Rice project — has already gotten a head start on creating rice that could nourish astronauts on long-term space missions. Since astronauts’ diets consist of pre-prepared meals that lack fresh ingredients, growing rice in space could help them get the nutrients they need to stay in shape while exploring the final frontier.
Read More: Timekeeping Works Differently on the Moon – Here’s How NASA Will Regulate Lunar Time
Growing the Perfect Space Rice
The key to perfecting space rice is meeting a trifecta of conditions: the rice needs to be small, productive, and nutritious.
Most crops grown on Earth are too large to be grown reliably in space, even dwarf varieties of rice that are more compact.
“What we need is a super-dwarf, but this comes with its own challenges,” said Marta Del Bianco, a plant biologist at the Italian Space Agency, in a statement. “Dwarf varieties often come from the manipulation of a plant hormone called gibberellin, which can reduce the height of the plant, but this also creates problems for seed germination. They’re not an ideal crop, because in space, you just don’t have to be small, you must also be productive.”
The project is advancing on multiple fronts to strike a delicate balance between size and efficiency. At the University of Milan, researchers have been isolating mutant rice varieties that can grow to a height of 10 cm (~4 inches). Meanwhile, researchers at the Sapienza University of Rome are identifying genes that can maximize production and growth efficiency for the crops.
To fulfill the need for high protein, Del Bianco and her team are working to boost the protein content of the rice by increasing the ratio of protein-rich embryo to starch.
They will also test the crop’s reaction to micro-gravity, which is what induces the weightlessness that astronauts experience in a space station. The best way to replicate this on Earth is to rotate the plant so that it is pulled equally in all directions by gravity.
Nutritional Needs for Astronauts
Long-term space missions are likely to become more frequent in the near future as nations set their sights on sending humans to the moon and Mars. As a result, the need for food that can be grown on permanent space bases is becoming increasingly evident.
Nutritious foods that provide sufficient vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber are needed to help astronauts combat a range of health issues in space, such as bone loss, muscle atrophy, and cardiovascular dysfunction.
“If we can make an environment that physically and mentally nourishes the astronauts, it will reduce stress and lower the chances of people making mistakes. In space, the best case of a mistake is wasted money, and the worst case is the loss of lives,” said Del Bianco.
Sending Plants to Space
The Moon-Rice project isn’t the only promising effort to bring edible crops to space. In 2022, NASA scientists found that Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of mustard greens, could grow in lunar regolith samples retrieved from the moon, albeit showing a few hiccups, like slower growth than normal and stunted roots.
The Vegetable Production System, a garden on the International Space Station, has also been able to grow several plants, including three types of lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and red Russian kale.
The future of space crops has another bright spot, as Boulder, Colorado-based Space Lab Technologies was selected in 2024 to develop a payload that will study plant growth on the moon. The payload, known as LEAF (Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora), will launch alongside NASA’s Artemis III mission in 2027.
Read More: Scientists Grow First Plants in Lunar Soil
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Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine
