Astronauts grow lettuce in space lab

One of the most impressive parts of the movie The Martian is when the lead character - an astronaut stranded on Mars after his team assumed him dead - succeeds at growing potatoes to keep himself alive while waiting to be rescued.

Now, Chinese scientists are testing the idea by attempting to grow vegetables in the Tiangong II space lab.

"If people live on Mars someday, they will need to grow grain and vegetables there," said Zheng Huiqiong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology in Shanghai.