Astronauts aboard the International Space Station grew some luscious-looking green chile peppers in space, and posted a video on Instagram with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide showing off their hard-won success.
The peppers are part of the space station’s Plant Habitat-04 experiment, according to the post.
NASA says the peppers take about four months to grow before astronauts harvest them, eating some and sending some back to Earth for analysis. The experiment is part of NASA’s efforts to figure out how to sustain crews on long missions that, unlike the space station, don’t have many or any opportunities for resupply.
One such mission is Artemis, in which NASA plans to return to the moon and establish a long-term human presence there, in preparation for travel to Mars.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur posted on Twitter that after the harvest, the space station’s crew sampled their chiles with some celebratory tacos.
Friday Feasting! After the harvest, we got to taste red and green chile. Then we filled out surveys (got to have the data!
). Finally, I made my best space tacos yet: fajita beef, rehydrated tomatoes & artichokes, and HATCH CHILE! https://t.co/pzvS5A6z5u pic.twitter.com/fJ8yLZuhZS
— Megan McArthur (@Astro_Megan) October 29, 2021
Sources:
Strickland, Ashley. “Astronauts Have a Taco Taste Test Using First Chile Peppers Grown in Space.” CNN, 2 Nov. 2021, https://ift.tt/N3y98eH.
Sempsrott, Danielle. “Plant Habitat-04.” NASA, 23 June 2021, https://ift.tt/YidIjGN.
Astronauts Grew These Chile Peppers on the Space Station
Source: Kapit Pinas
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