The Day a Potato Left Earth
On October 20, 1995, something extraordinary happened aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia during mission STS-73. While the crew of seven astronauts conducted experiments in the United States Microgravity Laboratory, a small collection of potato leaf cuttings quietly made history. They grew. In space. The potato became the first food crop ever cultivated outside of Earth's atmosphere.
Let that sink in for a moment. Of all the crops humanity could have sent to space first — wheat, rice, corn, soybeans — we chose the potato. And it wasn't even close.
Why Potatoes? The Case Was Overwhelming
The experiment was a collaboration between NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR). The lead researcher, Dr. Raymond Bula, had spent years studying how plants grow under artificial lighting, and when NASA came knocking with the question "What should we grow in space?" the potato was the obvious answer.
Here's why:
Caloric density. Potatoes pack roughly 77 calories per 100 grams. That might not sound impressive until you realize they're about 80% water. On a dry-weight basis, potatoes are caloric powerhouses. For a space mission where every gram of payload matters, you want maximum nutrition per square foot of growing space.
Nutritional completeness. A potato contains vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B6, iron, magnesium, and even a decent amount of protein. During the Irish Potato Famine, the devastation wasn't just about losing a food source — it was about losing a complete food source. People had been surviving primarily on potatoes because you actually can survive primarily on potatoes. Very few crops can make that claim.
Growth efficiency. Potatoes grow fast, produce reliably, and don't need pollination. That last point is crucial in space. There are no bees in orbit (yet). Crops like tomatoes and peppers need pollination to fruit. Potatoes? They grow from tubers. Cut a potato into pieces, plant them, and new potatoes appear. It's practically a biological copy machine.
Versatility. You can bake them, boil them, mash them, fry them. You can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner without wanting to launch yourself out of the airlock. Astronaut food fatigue is a real concern on long missions, and the potato's culinary flexibility is a genuine advantage.
The Astroculture Experiment
The actual experiment aboard Columbia was called Astroculture, and it was both elegant and nerve-wracking. The team had developed a specialized plant growth chamber — essentially a tiny, self-contained farm about the size of a microwave oven. Inside, potato leaf cuttings were placed in a nutrient-rich growing medium under carefully controlled LED lighting.
The challenge of growing plants in microgravity is more complex than you might think. On Earth, gravity tells roots to grow down and stems to grow up. In space, there is no down. Plants get confused. Water behaves differently too — instead of draining through soil, it forms blobs and clings to surfaces through surface tension. The Astroculture chamber had to solve all of these problems.
It used a porous tube system to deliver water and nutrients directly to the root zone, avoiding the floating-water problem. LED lights provided the specific wavelengths needed for photosynthesis. And temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels were all precisely controlled.
The result? The potato cuttings grew. They developed roots, stems, and — most importantly — they began forming tiny tubers. In sixteen days aboard Columbia, the potato proved it could do in space what it had been doing on Earth for thousands of years: just grow.
From Columbia to Mars
The success of the Astroculture experiment had implications far beyond a cool science project. NASA was already thinking about long-duration space missions — trips to Mars that would take years, not days. You can't pack enough freeze-dried food for a three-year round trip to Mars. At some point, astronauts need to grow their own food.
The potato's performance in orbit made it the leading candidate for space agriculture. In the years following STS-73, NASA and its partners continued refining the concept. The International Space Station has hosted numerous plant growth experiments, including lettuce, radishes, and chili peppers. But the potato remains uniquely suited for the role of "primary space crop" because of that combination of caloric density, nutritional completeness, and low-maintenance growth.
In 2016, the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, partnered with NASA to run experiments growing potatoes in Mars-like conditions. They used soil from the Pampas de La Joya desert in southern Peru — one of the driest places on Earth — and subjected it to the atmospheric conditions of Mars: extreme cold, high carbon dioxide, low air pressure. The potatoes grew. Again.
The CIP experiment suggested that with the right enclosed growing environment, potatoes could thrive in Martian soil. If humans ever build a base on Mars, the first meal might very well be a baked potato.
The Potato's Résumé Is Ridiculous
Think about this potato fact: the potato was domesticated in Peru around 8,000 BC. It sustained the Inca Empire. It fed Europe through industrialization (and nearly destroyed Ireland when it failed). It became the world's fourth-largest food crop. And then it became the first crop grown in space.
That's a ten-thousand-year résumé that includes "fed civilizations" and "conquered zero gravity." No other vegetable comes close. Corn is still figuring out how to not be turned into ethanol. Rice needs paddies. Wheat needs fields. The potato just needs a dark corner and some dirt, and apparently that dirt doesn't even need to be on this planet.
What This Means for the Rest of Us
You probably aren't going to Mars anytime soon (though if you are, congratulations and please take some Potatuhs merch). But the potato-in-space story matters because it highlights something we tend to forget: the potato is extraordinary.
We treat potatoes as boring. They're the side dish. The thing you eat with the steak. The filler in a soup. But boring things don't get chosen for space missions. Boring things don't grow in simulated Martian soil. Boring things don't sustain civilizations for ten millennia.
The potato is the most underappreciated organism on the planet. It has literally proven it can function off the planet. And yet we still rank it below quinoa on the "interesting foods" list because quinoa has better PR.
That's kind of why Potatuhs exists, honestly. The potato deserves better than being taken for granted. It deserves a hoodie. It deserves a fan club. It deserves someone saying, out loud, "Hey, this thing is amazing and here's why."
So the next time you eat a potato — baked, mashed, fried, or in any of its glorious forms — remember: you're eating the first crop that ever grew in space. You're eating a food that might sustain humans on Mars. You're eating something that has been keeping people alive for ten thousand years.
Not bad for a lumpy brown tuber.
Sources and Further Reading
- NASA STS-73 Mission Archives — United States Microgravity Laboratory-2
- University of Wisconsin-Madison WCSAR — Astroculture Plant Growth Experiments
- International Potato Center (CIP) — "Potatoes on Mars" Research Initiative, 2016
- NASA Advanced Food Technology Project — Long-Duration Mission Planning
