The human species has never trekked far unaccompanied by our agriculture, not at least since figuring that trick out however many moons ago. In the early days of the space era we continue our seedy ways. Tree seeds flew to the moon and seedlings have long been sprouted aboard the shuttle. (Even ill-fated Columbia included an experiment dealing with gravity-sensitive plant cells.) It's imperative that we master the microgravity conditions that we and our plants will, um, face as we venture farther into space. Why, every Enterprise from Archer to Picard wouldn't be complete without its Hydroponics Bay!

As regards space-station botany, the Mir outpost featured the Svet-GEMS greenhouse. Onboard Alpha is the ISS Plant Substrate Microgravity Testbed, aka "Lada." Lada - an ancient Russian Goddess of Spring - is a marvel of botanical engineering. Roughly a meter wide, half a meter tall, and a quarter-meter deep, it's somewhat smaller than its predecessor (though the elegant evolution of its design saves much space). This reduced volume helps keep cost and power requirements low as well.

Lada contains four modules: the Control Module, the Water Tank, and two Vegetation Modules. The Control Module is basically a compact computer with a sophisticated software interface - Russian and English! It includes a microcontroller, data logger, and various attachments for I/O peripherals. Under this module rests the five liter Water Tank. It is normally isolated from Alpha but can be refilled from there, using multiple pumps under manual or automatic control.

The Vegetation Modules sit one to either side of the Control Module/Water Tank stack. Each of these is made of three parts: Light Bank, Leaf Chamber, and Root Module. Station air is circulated through the Leaf Chambers and also ventilates the fluorescent lighting. (Together the Leaf Chambers total about 500 square centimeters of growing area.) Each Leaf Chamber supports probes for environmental conditions, and features a reflective door that can be opened by the crew for access to their "garden." The Root Module can contain up to sixteen sensors that can be reconfigured for different experiments.

Svet grew wheat aboard Mir. Though producing tomatoes with Lada has so far proved difficult, Expedition Six Flight Engineer Budarin did harvest a crop of space-grown peas. Recently the Russian Institute for Medical and Biological Problems has developed a new version of an improved space greenhouse, claimed to produce 100 grams of edibles every five days. This cylindrical grow-to-the-center system should begin testing middle of next year.

Self-sufficiency may not be as close, but surely every little bite helps!