Chinese astronauts harvest vegetables

China's in-orbit Shenzhou-16 crew has successfully cultivated and harvested vegetables in the Tiangong space station. The "space garden" or cultivation device they used is a simple modular with open structure designed by researchers of the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.

The device, which is easy to operate, can adjust temperature, humidity, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels to create environments needed for plant growth. It also allows the astronauts to tend to the plants at any time. The plants that grow in the garden are watered in the opposite direction from that on Earth.

In the future, the "space garden" will not only provide food, oxygen and water for the astronauts, but also serve as an experiment platform to study the effects of special environments, such as space microgravity, on the growth of plants.