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Potatoes and Space Have a Long History

Intergalactic potatoes may seem like a side dish from, but potatoes and space have a common history.

In 1978, George Lucas began work on , but wanting to remain independent from Hollywood, he financed it all himself. This led to some interesting low-budget work-arounds. Most notably, , whose asteroids were actually partially. Really!

Then again, in 2015's , potatoes make an appearance on the space-themed silver screenwith Matt Damon's portrayal ofMark Watney, an astronaut/botanist, who grows potatoes while stranded on Mars. Although Watney might be a fictional character, thanks to scientists, he now hasa spot in history. Anewly-discovered flower, which belongs to the same botanical family as the potato, has been named after him -the“solanum watney”.

Potatoes have even reached . Growing food crops in space has been one of the space agency’s interests for years. for space agriculture due to their high carbohydrate content and their tuberous nature that gives them low light requirements. As well, the of potatoes produce sproutsthat can be used to grow more plants, thereby making them a simple, reliable food source. For now astronauts have to rely on the as,so far, , but if here on Earth are successful, we could soon see spuds that are out of this world.


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