In 2030, we may witness humanity set foot on Mars. At least that’s what NASA’s plans are. Elon Musk thinks that this date will be 2029.
Whatever the date, there is only one thing that is true. A long and tiring journey awaits the astronauts who will go to Mars. They will be exposed to microgravity for months on this journey. This puts them at risk of bone loss. But it can be a crunchy, delicious solution to solving this problem.
Scientists announced that they have developed a new transgenetic lettuce. It’s similar to the lettuce we love to eat in our salads, but it’s been genetically modified to curb bone loss and can be grown in space.
“This is a very simple and cost-effective way to develop treatments,” chemist Karen McDonald of the University of California says in a media briefing.
On Earth, our body strikes a balance between breaking down and repairing the minerals in our bones to make sure we always get the nutrients we need. In microgravity, however, this equation loses its harmony. Bone mineral breakdown still occurs, but due to lack of repair, it leads to a loss of overall bone density.
That’s why astronauts use a drug called human parathyroid hormone, or PTH, in the mix. PTH helps stimulate bone formation, but this treatment has its own disadvantages. It is necessary to inject every time.
Thanks to the new lettuce, an astronaut who eats a certain amount of lettuce every day gets the necessary dose of PTH. “We decided to use lettuce because lettuce is a plant grown on the International Space Station. Because its seed is so fertile, thousands of seeds can be produced from one seed, and it’s possible to grow it fresh throughout the journey,” says McDonald.
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