New Delhi: NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station tasted the first chilli peppers grown there. NASA astronaut Megan McArthur made tacos on Friday with the first peppers grown in space.
The astronauts had planted chilli peppers on the ISS four months ago, and their efforts finally bore fruit on Friday, when astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei harvested the station's first crop of chilli peppers. This marked the successful completion of Plant Habitat-04 study, one of the most challenging station plant experiments to date.
The official twitter handle of ISS Research tweeted, "Happy pepper picking day aboard the @Space_Station!Today @Astro_Sabot gets the honor of harvesting the station’s first crop of chile peppers as a part of the Plant Habitat-04 study, one of the most challenging station plant experiments to date".
The chile pepper seeds started growing on July 12, 2021, and will be harvested again in late November.
Growing Food Crops In Space
NASA claimed the study was important as it will add to the space agency's knowledge of growing food crops for long-duration space missions.
NASA said the aim of the experiment was to find ways to sustain future explorers for missions to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, during which there are limited opportunities for resupply missions.
For more than 20 years, astronauts have lived and worked continuously in space, eating mostly packed fresh foods, which they are provided with during resupply missions.
Since NASA is planning to send the astronauts to the Moon for the Artemis Mission, and to Mars during future missions, preparation for Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond, researchers are developing ways to sustain explorers for missions to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit including Mars, it has become important for researchers to find ways of sustaining the explorers as these missions may last for months, or even years, as there will be limited opportunities for resupply missions.
NASA said it will be a logistical challenge to feed crews on the Moon, and especially Mars.
The crews will still be dependent on packaged foods sent from Earth. However, the need for more propellant and longer delivery times is a challenge while sending food to crews beyond low-Earth orbit, especially Mars.
Also, the food quality of packaged foods deteriorates as they are stored for long periods. This reduces the amount of key nutrients like Vitamin C and Vitamin K.
In order to address these challenges and supplement their diets with fresh food, astronauts, since 2015, have grown and consumed 10 different varieties of food crops on the orbital laboratory.
Why Chilli Peppers?
NASA astronauts chose to cultivate peppers as they contain several key nutrients and are an excellent source of Vitamin C. The plants are also robust with a good chance of growing successfully in microgravity.
Peppers are self-pollinating, making fruit easy to grow as it only requires agitating the plants, and add tasty variety to crew diets.
They are easy to handle in microgravity and can be harvested quickly. The crop does not require cooking or complex processing.
The fruit also have low microbial levels, so they are safe for astronauts to consume.
How Were The Peppers Grown In Space?
A team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sanitised and planted 48 pepper seeds in a device called a science carrier that contains baked clay for roots to grow in and a controlled release fertilizer specially formulated for peppers, according to NASA. The science carrier fits into the the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), the largest of three plant growth chambers aboard the orbiting lab.
The APH is of the size of a microwave, and is a growth chamber.
NuMex ‘Española Improved’ Pepper was the pepper cultivar. The growing time is originally planned for 120 days with harvests on days 100 and 120.
The astronauts have planted 48 peppers.
They have used Arcillite as the growth medium, which is a calcined clay frequently used on baseball infields for water management and soil conditioning.