Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #536

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NASA Astronauts Threw A Taco Party in Outer Space
Tacos are arguably one of the best food options. They're great because they're tasty, but also because they're so portable. You can eat a taco just about anywhere, even in outer space, apparently. We know this is true because a group of NASA astronauts recent- ly tested the theo- ry while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
CNN reports that the out-of-this- world taco party was inspired by the first success- ful crop of chile peppers grown on the ISS. The pep- pers were part of an experiment that started in July and have been harvested
twice since their initial planting. In celebration of the successful har- vest, astronaut Megan McArthur whipped up a batch of tacos using seven of the peppers. She also used fajita beef, rehydrated tomatoes, and rehydrated arti- chokes in the meal.
The peppers were sanitized before crew members were permitted to chow down.
According to a tweet from McArthur, they were her "best space tacos yet."
All told, 26 chile peppers from four plants were
grown during the course of the experiment. Per CNN, the chiles broke a record for feeding the most astronauts from space-grown pro- duce, which is a big deal. Some of the peppers—12 to be exact—will be coming back to Earth to be studied further. According to
CNN's reporting, the peppers, known as Plant Habitat-04, are unique from other space gardening experiments because they take much longer to grow. Astronauts previ- ously experiment- ed with growing radishes, lettuce, and flowering zin- nias, all of which
grow much faster.
Next up, NASA plans to grow microgreens, herbs, leafy greens, legumes, and/or dwarf tomatoes.
"PH-04 pushed the state-of-the- art in space crop production signifi- cantly. With this experiment, we took a field culti- var (plant variety) of a Hatch chile pepper from New Mexico, dwarfed it to fit inside the plant habitat, and figured out how to productively grow the first generally recognized fruit- ing crop in space—all in the span of a couple of years," Matt Romeyn, principal investigator for the experiment, said in a state- ment.
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