Mars has moved into view as NASA's long-term destination, and space scientists say that means the space agency needs to get serious about space greenhouses.

For decades, astronauts on Skylab and the International Space Station (ISS), as well as on space shuttle missions, have conducted research into how microgravity affects plant growth. During the Soviet Union's Salyut space station missions in the 1970s, Russian cosmonauts also began experimenting with personal greenhouses.

In a recent Acta Astronautica journal report, a team at the German Aerospace Center, led by space architect Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger of Austria's Vienna University of Technology, conclude that these efforts have paid off. They argue that plants offer spacefarers a wide range of psychological and practical benefits, and should