Ever wonder where we will build homes and expand neighborhoods as we use up more and more of Earth's habitable land? Perhaps space will be the next suburb? But before we start sending children on an intergalactic school bus ride, we must figure out new ways to accomplish everyday tasks in space, like growing food. International organizations are devoting time and resources to the development of sustaining human life beyond Earth. Some of the space programs' goals include the upcoming return to and eventual settlement of the moon, along with the pending manned voyages to Mars.

The International Space Station (ISS) provides a cooperative platform on which to research the critical challenges of putting humans in space for a sustained period of time. And researchers must overcome these challenges before any long flights and permanent habitats in space can happen.

Astronaut Image Gallery

space farming
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Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto works on an earth-bound, closed-system farming experiment that could be useful for extraterrestrial travel and settlement. The experiment is located at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. See more astronaut pictures.

Space farming requires greater understanding if humans are to survive in space without constant contact from Earth. Space farming simply refers to growing plants in space. At first glance this might not seem too tricky, but the inherent properties of space and our ability to travel and live in its environment greatly complicate the situation.

History of the ISS
The U.S. had kicked around the idea of a space station ever since the Reagan administration. In 1993, the U.S. and Russia decided to merge their space station plans and invite other countries to get involved in the project. The first orbiting components of the ISS were joined together in space in 1998, and the station has grown piece by piece ever since. Resident astronauts arrived in 2000. Two years later, astronauts installed Lada, the station's wall-mounted greenhouse that's used in experiments and as a source of fresh food. A second facility aboard the ISS, called the European Modular Cultivation System, is used to study plants and conduct other experiments.

Luckily, the ISS has a whole team of astronauts (green thumb not required) from around the world specializing in a variety of scientific and engineering fields. Astronauts conduct experiments and improve our knowledge of cultivating plants in space, as well as many other critical arenas of science. Earth-bound researchers and scientists analyze the results and conduct their own experiments, thinking up new theories and possible solutions to test.

Before we look into the progress the experts have made in space farming, let's delve a little deeper into the obstacles they face.