These are no ordinary potatoes. The marble-sized tubers in the hand were used to grow the normal-looking potatoes in the background. The twist: Tests aboard the International Space Station and the space shuttle helped make the spuds grow faster.

Scientists say faster-growing potatoes will help feed the world's growing population. And private enterprise will play a roll.

Seed potatoes, or minitubers, are cultivated in greenhouses and typically produce one crop per year. By using computer controlled growing chambers developed on the space station to control temperature, light and humidity, researchers can grow a crop of disease-free minitubers every 50 days or less.

The small potatoes in the image are called Quantum Tubers. They were developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and American Ag-Tec International, Ltd., of Delavan, Wisc.

In the photo at right, astronaut Catherine Coleman checks out an Astroculture sample on the Space Shuttle Columbia during a 1995 mission in which five small potatoes were grown in orbit from terrestrial tubers.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA