If you are a fan of the movie Martian, In which Matt Damon’s rugged little potato crop should sustain him for solitary years on Mars, then you know how suddenly high stakes and dramatic farming can occur when our solar system is reached far and wide. The inconvenience of getting lost on an alien planet, what it is now compared to the International Space Station: astronauts are growing and harvesting fresh roots in space, the latest crop to succeed in a zero gravity atmosphere.
CNN reports That NASA flight engineer Kate Rubins cut 20 radishes from the space station in 20 weeks Advanced plant accommodation (APH), an LED-illuminated growth chamber that has already grown lettuce, cabbage, wheat and lentils. As the diversity of plants grown in space increases, it is an attractive indicator that long-term missions to space and other planets become more possible.
Nicole Dufour, Program Manager, AAPH, said: “It is a privilege to lead a team that paves the way for the future of space crop production for NASA’s research efforts. A press release About the radish crop. “I’ve been working on APH from the beginning, and every new crop we’re able to grow gives me great pleasure because everything we’ve learned from them will help NASA send astronauts to Mars and bring them back safely.”
This should also be a great week for Professor and Chief Investigator Carl Hassenstein, who has been experimenting with the plant with NASA since 1995 (!!), according to a press release. For someone who has dedicated more than a quarter of a century to a zero-gravity growing environment, radish is a particularly illuminated crop.
Radishes provide great potential for research based on the composition of their sensitive bulbs, Husseinsstein said. “We can grow 20 plants in APH, analyze CO2 effects and mineral acquisition and distribution.”
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Thanks to this humble root, the mission to the moon and Mars is now a more realistic situation. Now, for the sake of astronauts, we also need to learn how to dress them in zero-g, with garlic or some nice brown butter. Does the space station have a good sessing pen?
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