It's still pretty early in the year, but you may as well give up now -- you're unlikely to achieve anything as exciting as Scott Kelly. He's just grown the first flower in space.

The zinnias were planted late last year, but looked as if they weren't going to survive. High humidity and limited air flow led to leaking water and weak, fragile leaves. At Christmas, Kelly tweeted, the plants started growing mould. But channelling his "inner Mark Watney", Kelly managed to nurse them back to health, yielding their first bloom.

In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. Our plants aren't looking too good. Would be a problem on Mars. I'm going to have to channel my inner Mark Watney. pic.twitter.com/m30bwCKA3w — Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) December 27, 2015


The crew have also grown a small crop of lettuce, which they ate last summer and apparently tasted "awesome". Next in line are tomatoes, seeds of which will be sent up to the ISS in 2018. Zinnias were chosen because their growth duration is longer than lettuces, so their success is a good sign that the tomatoes may thrive. Even if they don't, the moulds generated by all of the ailing plants will be sent back to Earth for examination.

The lettuce, zinnias and tomatoes aren't just there to look nice or provide the astronauts with something other than freeze-dried meals -- they're part of a project that aims to use space farming to understand both how to grow and maintain plant life in space and back on Earth.

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'Veggie'

Veggie, the system used to produce the lettuce and zinnias uses a high-efficiency lighting system that has now been incorporated into commercial crop-growing systems. The system uses LEDs, which waste almost no energy on heat, meaning it uses around 60 percent less energy than traditional plant lighting systems, both terrestrial and orbital. It also has a variable lighting system that allows it to adapt to specific growth stages and life cycles of plants.

Ethylene Scrubbing

Space farming research has also led to the development of ethylene-scrubbing technology. Ethylene is given off both in space and on Earth, leading to accelerated ripening and, therefore, speeding decay. Nasa worked with the University of Wisconsin to deal with the problem, developing a 'scrubber' that destroyed not only ethylene but also airborne bacteria, mould, fungi, viruses and odours.

In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences. Some of my space flowers are on the rebound! No longer looking sad! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/HJzXaTItIf — Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 8, 2016

The first ethylene-scrubbing technology flew to space in 1995 and was later licensed for use on Earth, and is now used in supermarkets, distilleries and restaurants. It is also used in the developing world to aid the storage of food in harsh conditions.


Leaf thickness sensors

A leaf thickness sensor may not sound particularly interesting, but has also been used both in space and on Earth. Because astronauts don't have much time to check on plants Nasa built a sensor to measure leaf thickness -- which indicates water content of a leaf. This both eliminates guesswork and reduced water consumption by 25 to 45 percent. The system is now used on Earth and can even send text messages to farmers when crops need water.

Aeroponic Plants

Aeroponic crop production allows plants to be suspended in air without soil -- meaning they require less water and less fertiliser, are less prone to disease and grow three times faster than soil-grown plants.

After a 2007 aeroponic experiment was successful, the technology was taken back down to Earth and marketed to consumers who may not have such a green thumb.