NASA plans to grow chili peppers in space

The chillies will be the first fruit grown in space by US astronauts.
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NASA has announced plans to grow the first ever chillies in space.

Researchers plan to send Española chili pepper plants to the International Space Station (ISS) in November this year. The peppers would be the first fruit to be grown in space by US astronauts.

"The astronauts have often expressed a desire for more spicy and flavourful foods, and so having a bit of hot flavour seemed to be a good thing,” NASA plant physiologist Ray Wheeler told New Mexico paper the Rio Grande Sun.

“Plus, many peppers are very high in vitamin C, which is important for space diets."

The International Space Station - In pictures

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Although there are thousands of different types of chillies, the Española variety (Capsicum annuum) was chosen largely because it grows at high altitudes, has short growing periods, and is easy to pollinate.

"We were looking for varieties that don't grow too tall, and yet are very productive in the controlled environments that we would be using in space," Mr Wheeler explained.

Astronauts and cosmonauts have successfully been growing plants on space stations since 1982, when the crew of the Soviet Salyut 7 spacecraft first grew the model plant Arabidopsis.

Russian cosmonauts have also been eating their own space produce since 2003, but American astronauts had to wait until 2015 to get their first taste of space lettuce.

Since then, a number of different “space vegetables” have been cultivated on the ISS, including radishes, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage and peas.

While peas are technically part of a pod fruit – and Russians have grown this for years in their section of the ISS – no US astronaut has yet grown a fruiting plant in space.

Plants generally struggle to grow in microgravity, due to complex root systems which typically rely on Earth's gravity to orient themselves.

However, astronauts have managed to grow certain varieties aboard the ISS by using special types of light and other innovative techniques, which help plants differentiate between up and down.

In 2018, a nearly self-sufficient growth system called The Advanced Plant Habitat was sent up to the ISS, joining The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) to help the crew grow fresh food.

This is key to NASA's ambitions to eventually send humans to Mars.

"We can build all the rockets we want to go to Mars, but it won't work unless we have food to eat," NASA horticultural scientist Jacob Torres NASA told the Rio Grande Sun.

The researchers aim to grow a variety of crops in space, particularly focused on producing a wide variety of nutrients and vitamins.

"We need to grow enough to supplement diet," Mr Torres told American broadcaster CNN. "Just like here on Earth, we can't live on the same thing."

"Just imagine having a fresh pepper to bite into after months of eating cardboard," he added.