![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IL_BLOOM_Trois-Quart_Macro_6-1.png\")
A prototype of Interstellar Lab\u2019s automated miniature greenhouse, Bloom, which will be installed on the lunar surface by Astrolab\u2019s FLEX Rover as part of Artemis 4. Credit: Interstellar Lab<\/p>\nRockets, rovers and landers have dominated the attention of the commercial space industry as the United States focuses on sending humans back to the moon, but a handful of companies are focusing on a critical next step: feeding them once they\u2019re there.<\/p>\n
NASA aims to assemble a moon base starting as early as 2028, and producing food will be key to eventually establishing a sustained presence there, allowing astronauts to thrive during long-duration exploration. Already the agency has spent years studying plant growth in microgravity on the International Space Station. But it will be years before astronauts can build a salad with produce grown entirely in space. It will likely take even longer for additional experiments and new capabilities to scale crop production there.<\/p>\n
But some firms are under contract today to build the necessary technology, with the goal of creating a reliable and nutritious food system for humans on the moon \u2014 and potentially beyond.<\/p>\n
This spring, NASA solicited Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposals for plant-growth technologies and has multiple contract opportunities for similar types of innovations.<\/p>\n
To businesses already developing this type of tech, it\u2019s a promising sign that space agriculture systems could grow to be a larger part of the commercial space industry and that their experiments and technologies may be laying the groundwork for large-scale food production on the moon, Mars and deep space.<\/p>\n
Across the industry, companies and research teams are building modular plant pods and refining larger lunar greenhouse designs, preparing to cultivate difficult-to-grow flora on the lunar surface and developing monitors that can detect plant stress before it hinders growth.<\/p>\n
Together, these technologies offer a glimpse into what off-world crop production \u2014 in space stations, on the moon and on Mars \u2014 could look like.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf autonomous controlled-environment agriculture and commercial space infrastructure continue to develop as expected, the addressable market could ultimately support a company with tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue,\u201d said Fartash Vasefi, co-founder and chief technology officer of SafetySpect, a firm that develops environmental and food safety technology.<\/p>\n
Growing crops off-world<\/p>\n
The moon does not make for a natural garden. So astronauts will have to bring the ingredients for a garden up with them.<\/p>\n
NASA has funded multiple initiatives to develop the growing environment for crops to feed crews living in orbit, on the moon or on other planets, with different teams developing growth chambers, greenhouses and other technology for off-world agriculture.<\/p>\n
Two prominent cases illustrate how the same concepts and techniques for growing food on Earth may be adapted for inhospitable environments. Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora (LEAF), a science mission experiment that Space Lab Technologies is developing for an Artemis lunar landing, will study how the moon\u2019s environment affects plant growth and nutritional content.<\/p>\n
A prototype of Interstellar Lab\u2019s automated miniature greenhouse, Bloom, which will be installed on the lunar surface by Astrolab\u2019s FLEX Rover as part of Artemis 4. Credit: Interstellar Lab<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Interstellar Lab is working toward a greenhouse that the company said will eventually be able to sustain human crews on other planets.<\/p>\n
Selected as one of three Artemis 3 mission science experiments in March 2024, the LEAF experiment involves building a small, solar-powered growth chamber that will be deployed on the lunar surface during a future crewed mission.<\/p>\n
The chamber will house three plants \u2014 two varieties of brassica rapa, which are in the mustard family, and thale cress \u2014 selected for their history of growth in space, food potential, small size and quick growth. Using power from built-in solar panels, the stout, boxy chamber will be propped on the lunar surface by four splayed legs as it autonomously provides the necessary light, nutrients, water and atmosphere for the plants to grow for three to five days. The crew will extract seedling samples and return them to Earth for analysis.<\/p>\n
The experiment will study how the moon\u2019s partial gravity and space radiation affect photosynthesis and plant nutritional content. It will also investigate whether there are genetic traits that contribute to plants\u2019 resilience to lunar stress. The goal is two-fold: learn how to select or breed crops best suited for growth, nutrition and carbon dioxide-to-oxygen conversion in space, and refine the equipment to help plants grow best in lunar conditions.<\/p>\n
Given shifts in NASA\u2019s original Artemis plans, LEAF doesn\u2019t have a scheduled launch, but it\u2019s being developed for one of the two Artemis lunar landings the agency has planned for 2028.<\/p>\n
The plant growth chamber builds on nearly 10 years of NASA-supported tech development at Space Lab. Its first NASA contract in 2017 helped the company build a growth chamber that both watered and harvested nutritious aquatic plants in microgravity during a Blue Origin New Shepard flight in 2020 and 2025 \u2014 tech that it later adapted for LEAF. Since then, the Boulder, Colorado-based company has secured $19.3 million through 15 NASA contracts for space agriculture technology, including an autonomous plant-health monitoring device and even a concept for a greenhouse dome for Mars.<\/p>\n
Such bioregenerative technologies are key to farther and longer space exploration, said Christine Chamberlain, Space Lab vice president and chief business officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we start having a more sustainable presence in space, either in LEO or a moon base or on to Mars, the need for being able to either recycle or reuse or regenerate what you consume will become more and more necessary to be able to sustain that exploration without having to take everything you need with you from Earth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Space agriculture technologies also have significant commercial potential, she added, because plants produced in these systems can be used for biomanufacturing, leading to other important materials in space, such as medicine, biofuel or plastics.<\/p>\n
Chamberlain has seen this firsthand, as Space Lab has worked on a separate NASA-funded project for a regenerative lunar mineral mining facility that would grow plants to help sustain the extraction process.<\/p>\n
Also working toward greenhouses for other worlds is Interstellar Lab, which got its start in 2018 concepting lunar greenhouses that could be replicated on Mars. Since then, the biofarming tech startup, which has an office in Paris and at the Kennedy Space Center, has developed smaller autonomous closed-loop systems to grow plants in space.<\/p>\n
One will be aboard Vast\u2019s Haven-1 space station, which is set to launch next year. Throughout four missions over three years, astronauts will bring compartments with different seeds and crops for the plant growth chamber. The system will use AI to optimize and autonomously manage temperature, lighting, irrigation and more growing conditions in real time, then collect and analyze data on the plants\u2019 growth.<\/p>\n
Interstellar Lab has also created prototypes of a similar system with six growing chambers, which won NASA\u2019s Deep Space Food Challenge grand prize of $750,000 in 2024, for NASA to operate in low Earth orbit (LEO). The company has received $1 million from the agency for this Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 tech.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spacenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IL_NUCLEUS_10-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Interstellar Lab\u2019s NuCLEUS (Nutritional Closed-Loop Eco-Unit System), an autonomous, modular plant-growth system with six growing chambers that won the NASA Deep Space Food Challenge in 2024. Credit: Interstellar Lab<\/p>\n