SAN FRANCISCO, iNews.id – For astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) harvest chilli the second planted in the station. This harvest ends one of the most complex experiments in growing plants in space to date.
Although some edible plants have been grown on the ISS before such as leafy greens and turnips, experimenting with chili peppers is more challenging than ever. Because, chili is a flowering plant and grows for a total of 137 days.
Chili was grown in Advanced Planet Habitat as part of an experiment called Plant Habitat-04. “The PH-04 drives the production of cutting-edge space plants significantly,” said Matt Romeyn, principal investigator of PH-04 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
With this experiment, Matt says, they took field cultivars of Hatch peppers from New Mexico, dwarfed them to suit plant habitats, and found a productive way to grow the first generally recognized fruit crop in space, all within the span of a few years.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
