In the name of science, astronauts hold a taco feast in the International Space Station using peppers grown literally out of this world.
THE International Space Station (ISS) crew members celebrate the harvest of the first red and green chili peppers grown in space with a taco party.
Plant Habitat-04 is an experiment to cultivate chile peppers as part of a larger project to see which possible food sources can be grown in space for long missions.
The seeds were brought to the ISS in June aboard a SpaceX spacecraft after two years of evaluating which pepper variety will be selected.
A hybrid pepper developed by the New Mexico State University that combines the ‘Hatch Sandia’ from Hatch Valley in southern New Mexico and the traditional ‘Española’ pepper of northern New Mexico.
The peppers turn red when fully ripe but can also be eaten green.
Some 48 seeds were planted and were planned to be harvested on the 100th and the 120th day.
On October 30, the ISS Research Twitter page shared a photo of a fully grown chile pepper calling it “one of the most challenging station plant experiments to date.”
Compared to the previous food experiments done in the space station which included lettuce, flowering zinnias, and radishes, the peppers require longer germination and growing times.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur tweeted that the crew has tasted the peppers and made her “best space tacos yet” with fajita beef, rehydrated tomatoes, artichokes, and the space chiles.
Some of the harvests will be sent back to Earth for analysis while the plant will continue to grow on the space station.
One of the most common questions on social media right now is how hot the peppers are.
On Earth, the chile pepper is considered as mild heat with only 2,000-4,000 Scoville Heat Units.
The amount of water the peppers receive is an important factor in determining the spiciness but NASA believes microgravity could have impacted the plants’ growth.
McArthur shared that the crew filled out a survey regarding the flavor and texture of the peppers in order to determine if growing in space had an effect on taste at all.
Tags: #taco, #NASA, #space, #chilepepper