Astronauts To Grow The Very First Fruit On Space

The year of 1982 has witnessed the first model plant being grown in space. Arabidopsis, a mustard-related plant was cultivated outside the universe thanks to the crew of Soviet Salyut 7 spacecraft. This event has paved the way for astronauts and cosmonauts to continue working on space cultivation and Russian ones have been even eating their self-produced cabbage and radish.

It wasn’t until 2015 that lettuce was grown in space by American astronauts. Currently, plenty of vegetables including radishes, peas and Chinese cabbage are cultivated on the International Space Station (ISS). However, ISS has always been preparing for a further step botanically – planting fruits. Basically, space fruits haven’t been available yet, but the situation is expected to be changed in the near future.

Espanola chili pepper plants (Capsicum annuum) are the new hope of NASA researchers since they believe such kind of fruit can be harvested in space. Surpassing other species of pepper fruits, Espanola peppers have become the US scientists' first choice due to the fact that they can cope with high altitudes and a hard-to-pollinate environment. Height is also a criteria to choose the suitable species to grow in space, as fruit plants which are medium tall yet still able to bear fruits are more likely to be chosen, according to researchers.

Microgravity could prevent plants from orienting their roots, that’s why a special light system and different techniques will be applied to guides plants where to develop their roots. Scientists are also working on an additional solution for the demands for nutrients and vitamins in space. Such supplemental source plays an important role in the manned-mission to Mars that NASA promised to carry out in November this year.