NASA astronaut Kate Rubin harvested fresh radishes grown in space, opening new doors to produce food in microgravity to sustain future long-term missions to the moon and Mars.
Was radish Grown in advanced plant habitat (APH) on the International Space Station. A shared by NASA Time lapse video During the 27 days of radish it was grown within APH.
On November 30, Rubins cut 20 radish plants from APH, wrapped each foil and put in cold storage. The radish plants will be sent to Earth early next year on SpaceX’s 22nd Commercial Resilience Services mission, according to a Statement from NASA.
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Is the latest type of radish Fresh product Successfully grown and pruned in microgravity, and the plants were selected for the Housing-2 (pH-02) experiment because the vegetables are well understood by scientists and reach maturity in just 27 days.
Radish is also a successful test plant for future long-term missions because it is edible and nutritious. Vegetation is genetically identical Arabidopsis, A small flowering plant related to cabbage that is frequently studied in microgravity, NASA said in a statement.
Nicole Dufour, NASA’s APH program manager at the Kennedy Space Center, said radishes are a different kind of crop than astronauts who used to grow leafy greens on a space station or dwarf wheat. Statement. “Growth in the crop range helps us determine which plants thrive in microgravity and provide the best variety and nutrient balance for astronauts on long-term missions.”
The PH-02 experiment allowed NASA scientists to study the ideal balance of care and diet while increasing quality. Plants in space. The radishes were grown with the help of a certain amount of minerals and require very little maintenance from the crew. The APH chamber uses red, blue, green, and broad-spectrum white LED lights to stimulate plant growth, while a state-of-the-art control system delivers water to the plants as needed.
The APH is equipped with more than 180 sensors that allow researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to monitor plant growth and control temperature, humidity and carbon-dioxide levels inside the chamber, the statement said.
“Radish sculptures offer great research potential based on the composition of their sensitive bulbs,” Nilas said in a statement, according to Carl Hassenstein, chief investigator for PH-02 and a professor at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. Hessenstein has undertaken Vegetable experiments With NASA since 1995.
In addition to crops grown in space, there have also been researchers Growing radishes Residence of the control plant in the International Space Station Environmental Simulator (ISSES) chamber at the Kennedy Space Station processing facility from 17 November. ISSES radish W.ERE harvest Compare with those grown in space on December 14th.
Officials said in a NASA statement that NASA astronauts will soon be planting another radish seed in APH’s second science carrier, increasing the size of the radish sample grown in space to increase the accuracy of the scientists’ experience.
“It’s a privilege to help lead a team that paves the way for the future Space crop production Dufore said in a statement that for NASA’s research efforts. “I’ve worked on APH from the beginning, and every new crop we’re able to grow gives me great pleasure because what we learn from them will help send NASA astronauts to Mars and bring them back safely.”
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