Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) added a new item to their space food menu: chili. Recently, an experiment to grow peppers in space for the first time began.

This week, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbro put 48 pepper seeds into the Advanced Planetary Habitat (APH) of the space station and launched an experiment called Plant Habitat-04. The goal is to grow peppers for the next four months and then harvest them to see how they grow.

Although many other vegetables are planted on the space station, such as cabbage, lettuce, radish, etc., peppers are more complex than these. For example, radishes can mature within a month, but peppers require a longer growth time, which makes their growth more challenging.

Matt Romeyn, the lead researcher of Plant Habitat-04, explained: “Due to the long germination and growth time, this is one of the most complex plant experiments on the space station to date.” “We have tested flowering before to increase the chances of successful harvesting. Because astronauts must pollinate peppers to bear fruit."

The focus of the experiment is not only to see if vegetables can be grown in space to provide food for astronauts on long-term missions, such as the ultimate manned mission to Mars. When astronauts interact with living plants and nurture them, and finally enjoy the fresh food that they work hard to grow, they will also receive direct psychological benefits.

"Growing colorful vegetables in space has long-term benefits for physical and mental health," Romijn said. "We found that growing plants and vegetables with colors and smells can help improve the health of astronauts."

You may be wondering how spicy peppers are, considering that peppers on the earth can range from mild to spicy. The type of chili selected for the experiment was NuMex'Española Improved' chili, a hybrid hachi chili, but it is difficult to predict how spicy the space chili is because it depends on many factors.

"The spiciness of peppers is determined by the environmental growth conditions. PH-04 project scientific team leader LaShell Spencer said: "The combination of microgravity, light quality, temperature and root zone moisture will affect the flavor, so understand the growth and maturity of the fruit. And the taste will be very interesting. "

"This is important because the food that astronauts eat needs to be as good as their other equipment," Spencer continued. "In order to successfully send humans to Mars and bring them back to Earth, we need not only the most nutritious food, but also the best-tasting food."

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