In a step thats getting human beings closer to off-world farming， scientists on Germanys Neumayer Station III in Antarctica harvested a big crop of vegetables， like salad greens， cucumbers and radishes.

The crops， grown in a lab called EDEN-ISS， were produced without dirt， pesticides or daylight， according to the team.

The researchers employed a reusable water cycle and a nutrient system， while optimizing LED lighting and carefully monitoring carbon dioxide in the room—based on a method known as hydroponics.

“After sowing the seeds in mid-February， 2018， I had to deal with some unexpected problems， such as minor system failures and the strongest storm in more than a year，” said Paul Zabel， an engineer involved with the project. “Fortunately， all these things could be fixed and overcome.”

This isnt the first time researchers have attempted something like this， with the ISS growing space vegetables already back in 2015.

But this project is focused on producing a wider mix， such as radishes， salad greens， tomatoes， cucumbers， peppers （capsicum） and even herbs.

With temperatures outside dropping below -20 degrees Celsius， its pretty amazing that the researchers are producing a wide range of fruits and vegetables.

“諾伊邁爾三號(hào)站”是德國(guó)在南極洲開設(shè)的科學(xué)考察站?？茖W(xué)家在那里收獲了一大批蔬菜，比如生菜、黃瓜和蘿卜。人類離太空農(nóng)業(yè)又近了一步。

該團(tuán)隊(duì)表示，這些農(nóng)作物是在“EDEN-ISS”實(shí)驗(yàn)室里種出來的，在種植過程中沒有使用土壤和農(nóng)藥，也沒有日照。

研究人員根據(jù)“水培法”，采用可重復(fù)利用的水循環(huán)系統(tǒng)和營(yíng)養(yǎng)物系統(tǒng)，同時(shí)充分利用LED照明，并仔細(xì)監(jiān)測(cè)室內(nèi)的二氧化碳濃度。

“2018年2月中旬播下種子之后，我得處理一些意料之外的問題，比如：處理系統(tǒng)出現(xiàn)的小故障和應(yīng)對(duì)一年多以來出現(xiàn)的最強(qiáng)烈的暴風(fēng)雪。”參與該項(xiàng)目的工程師保羅·扎貝爾說，“但幸運(yùn)的是，所有的問題都是可以解決和克服的?！?/p>

研究人員并非首次進(jìn)行這類研究。早在2015年，國(guó)際空間站就曾種出太空蔬菜。

但是這個(gè)項(xiàng)目旨在種出更多種類的蔬菜，包括蘿卜、生菜、番茄、黃瓜、辣椒，甚至草本植物。

在室外溫度低于-20℃的情況下，研究人員能夠種出種類豐富的水果和蔬菜，實(shí)在是不可思議。

Word Study

harvest /'hɑ?v?st/ v. 收獲；收割

Rice farmers here still plant and harvest their crops by hand.

optimize /'?pt?ma?z/ v. 使最優(yōu)化；充分利用

They need to optimize the use of available resources.

minor /'ma?n?（r）/ adj. 較小的；輕微的