NASA Astronaut Grows Purple Potato Aboard ISS

NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared a striking image from the International Space Station showing what appears to be an otherworldly organism-but it’s actually a purple potato grown in orbit.

Pettit, on Expedition 72, cultivated the tuber during off-duty hours in a makeshift grow-light terrarium, using Velcro to anchor it in microgravity. He dubbed it “Spudnik-1.”

Purple potatoes owe their hue to anthocyanins and are prized for high nutritional efficiency-edible mass relative to total plant biomass. Pettit cited Andy Weir’s “The Martian” as inspiration, noting potatoes’ potential role in sustaining future Mars or lunar settlements.

Pettit, a veteran of four spaceflights totaling 590 days in orbit, often documents celestial phenomena, but his latest focus underscores a critical challenge: growing food beyond Earth.

Space agencies including NASA, ESA, DLR, and JAXA are advancing space agriculture through hydroponics, bioreactors, and automated greenhouses. NASA’s Veggie and Advanced Plant Habitat systems have already produced lettuce and peppers aboard the ISS.