Space Is Hard | How NASA Will Science Its Food and Drink for Interplanetary Travel

(light techno music)

[Narrator] For decades, space food has been mostly

slurry in a tube.

Bust last year, astronauts aboard the ISS

enjoyed the first space salad grown 200 miles from earth.

That's awesome.

Tastes good.

Yeah.

[Narrator] It was one small leaf for man.

But making the step to zero G agriculture was pretty tricky.

Watering alone is a feat

since it wants to float around in bubbles.

So engineers have devised a system that carries moisture

directly to the plants' roots.

Basically, a space chia pet.

(Chia advertising song)

Astronauts even grew a nice bouquet of zinneas.

Hm, they really do tie the station together.

Keeping enough water around is also a challenge.

Right now, there's a pretty ingenious system

that transforms pee into usable water.

Here, aboard the ISS,

we turn yesterday's coffee into tomorrow's coffee.

[Narrator] But it can break down. Ugh.

If humans are going to travel to other planets,

we'll need a better water recycler.

So NASA is taking inspiration from the human gut

and using a water filter using genetically modified bacteria

to clean out the H20.

Ah, refreshing.