NASA astronauts grow radishes in SPACE for the first time aboard the International Space Station

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have added a new item to the dinner menu: radishes.

NASA astronauts recently harvested fresh radish plants from the station’s Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) and Vegetable Production System (Veggie), which use LED lights to stimulate plant growth.

Kate Rubins pulled 20 of the root vegetables out of the system and meticulously wrapped them in aluminum foil, placing them in cold storage for the trip back to Earth in 2021.

The plant experiment is part of a larger project intended to help space fairing heroes grow their own food on the moon and one day on Mars.

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The experiment, called Plant Habitat-02 (PH-02), is the first time astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have grown radishes.

Other projects have produced green leafy vegetables such as mustard and red lettuce.

Radishes were chosen for their quick ability to ripen in just 27 days, making them ideal as a sustainable food source for hungry astronauts.

Nicole Dufour, NASA’s APH program manager at the Kennedy Space Center, said, “Radishes are a different type of crop than the green leafy vegetables that astronauts previously grew on the space station.”

“Growing a wide range of crops helps us determine which plants thrive in microgravity conditions and offer the best variety and nutritional balance for astronauts on long-duration missions.”

In addition to providing crew members with new food to enjoy, the experiment also allows NASA to identify the optimal balance of care and nutrition needed to produce quality plants.

And they found that root vegetables required little maintenance.

The systems, APH and Veggie, use broad spectrum red, blue, green and white LED lights to grow plants within a sealed chamber.

Sophisticated control systems provide water, while surveillance cameras and more than 180 sensors in the chamber allow researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to monitor plant growth and regulate humidity levels, temperature and carbon dioxide concentration. .

Karl Hasenstein, a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who has been conducting plant experiments with NASA since 1995, said: “

“Radishes offer great research opportunities by virtue of their sensitive bulb formation,” Hasenstein said.

“We can grow 20 plants in the APH, analyze the effects of CO2 and the acquisition and distribution of minerals.”

The team established a plant control population in the ground control plant habitat unit in the International Space Station (ISSES) environmental simulator chamber within the Kennedy space station processing facility.

Radishes grow in almost the same conditions in the ISSES, as on the ISS, since November 17.

Researchers on the ground plan to harvest their control crop on December 15 and will compare them to those grown at the station.

This historic harvest doesn’t mean that the experiment is over, Dufour added.

“APH has two scientific vectors, so shortly after the first harvest, the second vector will be used to repeat the experiment by planting another set of radish seeds,” he said.

“Replicating the experiment on the plant increases the sample size and improves scientific accuracy.”

“With plans to explore the Moon and Mars someday, NASA knows astronauts will need to grow their own food to support long-term missions away from home,” NASA shared in a statement.

“As part of the Artemis program, NASA plans to establish sustainable exploration on and around the Moon by the end of the decade.”