Teh One Who Knocks
11-03-2021, 11:51 AM
By Elizabeth Howell - Space.com
https://i.imgur.com/NvtQXf1.png
Some of humanity's first space-grown chile peppers have been consumed in orbit, taco-style.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, one of the seven crewmembers currently living and working at the International Space Station (ISS), created what she called "my best space tacos yet," using some of the newly harvested peppers, some fajita beef and rehydrated tomatoes (as fresh food can only last so long in space.)
The astronauts also got to eat some of the red and green peppers and perform a survey on their taste for future science work, McArthur said in the Oct. 29 Twitter post. The 48 Hatch peppers are part of a new push by NASA to test out more food ahead of long-term missions to the moon and Mars.
Happily, the harvest is somewhat self-continuing as a few of the peppers produced flowers used to germinate another crop, NASA said in an Oct. 5 update of the project. The space station crew hand-pollinated some of the flowers to assist the future harvest, which may take place this month.
"Studies of fruit development in microgravity are limited, and NASA researchers have noted lower fruit development versus ground observations in this experiment for reasons that are not fully understood at this point," the agency said.
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The "pepper-picking day" for the first harvest took place on Oct. 29, according to the International Space Station Research Twitter feed, presumably a few hours before the taco feast. The crop came from the Planet Habitat-04 study, which is an ongoing series of trying to grow different plants in orbit.
Previous harvests included space-grown Mizuna mustard, radishes, zinnias red lettuce and two other lettuce types. The latest crop of Hatch chile peppers arrived at the ISS June 5 with the SpaceX Dragon CRS-22 commercial resupply mission. NASA announced the peppers were growing in a July 13 statement.
It was serendipity that the SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts, including McArthur, were still on board when the chile peppers were ready for harvest. Initially they were supposed to return home in late October, before the crops were ready. They're still in space awaiting the weather to improve for the launch of their relief mission, Crew-3.
https://i.imgur.com/NvtQXf1.png
Some of humanity's first space-grown chile peppers have been consumed in orbit, taco-style.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, one of the seven crewmembers currently living and working at the International Space Station (ISS), created what she called "my best space tacos yet," using some of the newly harvested peppers, some fajita beef and rehydrated tomatoes (as fresh food can only last so long in space.)
The astronauts also got to eat some of the red and green peppers and perform a survey on their taste for future science work, McArthur said in the Oct. 29 Twitter post. The 48 Hatch peppers are part of a new push by NASA to test out more food ahead of long-term missions to the moon and Mars.
Happily, the harvest is somewhat self-continuing as a few of the peppers produced flowers used to germinate another crop, NASA said in an Oct. 5 update of the project. The space station crew hand-pollinated some of the flowers to assist the future harvest, which may take place this month.
"Studies of fruit development in microgravity are limited, and NASA researchers have noted lower fruit development versus ground observations in this experiment for reasons that are not fully understood at this point," the agency said.
1454190385190907912
1454100673772019718
The "pepper-picking day" for the first harvest took place on Oct. 29, according to the International Space Station Research Twitter feed, presumably a few hours before the taco feast. The crop came from the Planet Habitat-04 study, which is an ongoing series of trying to grow different plants in orbit.
Previous harvests included space-grown Mizuna mustard, radishes, zinnias red lettuce and two other lettuce types. The latest crop of Hatch chile peppers arrived at the ISS June 5 with the SpaceX Dragon CRS-22 commercial resupply mission. NASA announced the peppers were growing in a July 13 statement.
It was serendipity that the SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts, including McArthur, were still on board when the chile peppers were ready for harvest. Initially they were supposed to return home in late October, before the crops were ready. They're still in space awaiting the weather to improve for the launch of their relief mission, Crew-3.