Norway Plans Space Farm

While others might dream of fighting aliens or staging zero-gravity trampoline contests, a team of Norwegian scientists has come up with a far more practical plan for space and has announced plans to try to grow food plants on the International Space Station.

According to The Local, a 10-year project announced Friday is called Time Scale and will be researching how food plants can be grown in space to supply astronauts with food and possibly oxygen. The exact crops have not yet been determined, but the research team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology says they're considering starting with lettuce, tomatoes, and soybeans.

"One of the big challenges is to administer exactly the right amount of water and nutrients to the plants in such little gravity," said project leader Ann-Iren Kittang Jost.

The end goal is to have a self-sustaining ecosystem in space by 2050, but in the meantime, astronauts will at least be able to enjoy some fresher salads.