Chilli peppers grown in space, astronauts harvest first produce in zero gravity

When humans travel to the Moon next in the coming decade and hopefully set foot on Mars thereafter, supplying food to astronauts will be a major challenge. "While taking far longer to grow than Nasa’s previous space crops, this variety of peppers matures in a few months and has grown well in the limited space available inside the Advanced Plant Habitat during ground tests," the agency had said earlier. The agency selected Hatch chilli pepper, the generic name for several different varieties of green chilli peppers from Hatch, New Mexico, which grew best in ground-based testing. GROWING IN SPACE Scientists planted 48 pepper seeds in a device called a science carrier that was filled with baked clay for roots to grow in with a controlled release fertiliser formulated for peppers. Growing peppers in space may also benefit us here on Earth by demonstrating the feasibility of using existing pepper varieties in controlled environment agriculture," Nasa said.