Bootleg agrarian society in the space station 🛰 Astronaut Kate Rubins surprised us with her stories of secretive plant growth in the ISS. She started with sanctioned experiments to grow radishes in space. Instead of disposing of the plants, they hid them where the LED lighting was good and NASA cameras would not see them. They had huge kale plants growing. The Russian and Japanese teams did the same, trading seeds and fertilizer. “We recreated early agrarian society in space.” “It made people happy. Otherwise, it’s like living in sterile HVAC system.” “NASA worries about microbes, but we have lived with plants throughout history. The CO2 levels are good, and the plants thrive.”