Tomatoes are coming to Antarctica in January 2018

Antarctica is no place for a tomato. But starting in January 2018, researchers at the German Antarctic research station, Neumayer III, will begin growing not only tomatoes but also lettuces, herbs, peppers, cucumbers, Swiss chard, radishes and even strawberries inside a climate-controlled shipping container. Although other indoor gardens have existed in Antarctica, the EDEN ISS Mobile Test Facility will be the most advanced indoor farm on the continent — an experiment meant to push the limits of indoor agriculture, so that the technology can hold up for a long mission to Mars.

"Some of my colleagues like to say, 'It's no longer your grandmother's garden anymore,'" says Matthew Bamsey, a research associate at DLR, also known as the German Aerospace Center, and a member of the EDEN ISS team, a multipartner project focused on developing plant cultivation technologies for future use in space.

Out on the Ekström Ice Shelf in the Atlantic sector, the greenhouse will stand against Antarctica's frigid temperatures, the long dark winter and extremely low humidity. From the outside it's a simple structure, just two 20-foot (6-meter) shipping containers placed end to end. But inside, it's a high-tech oasis capable of producing 661 pounds (300 kilograms) of produce annually. To give you an idea of how much that is, in 2013, the average U.S. person consumed 272 pounds (123 kilograms) of fruits and vegetables.

Fine-tuning the operation for space is one of the main goals of the project.

"We don't want an astronaut working 16 hours a day in the greenhouse," he says.

The experiment will allow them to figure out just how much time is needed to tend the garden. Over the next year, they'll get closer to that answer.

Read more at HowStuffWorks (Tracy Staedter)