Intergalactic potatoes may seem like a side dish from听, but potatoes and space have a common history.
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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听. Really!
Then again, in 2015's , potatoes make an appearance on the space-themed silver screen听with Matt Damon's portrayal of听Mark Watney, an astronaut/botanist, who grows potatoes while stranded on Mars. Although Watney might be a fictional character, thanks to scientists, he now has听a spot in history. A听newly-discovered flower, which belongs to the same botanical family as the potato, has been named after him -听the听鈥渟olanum watney鈥�.听
Potatoes have even reached . Growing food crops in space has been one of the space agency鈥檚 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 sprouts听that can be used to grow more plants, thereby making them a simple, reliable food source. For now astronauts have to rely on the as,听so far, , but if 听here on Earth are successful, we could soon see spuds that are out of this world.
