2023-12-10 21:24:38
NASA is committed to space exploration. And while some cosmic mysteries may never be solved, one is finally resolved. The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) reports that a tomato that had been missing for eight months has been found. This was one of only twelve successfully germinated fruits that were grown as part of an agricultural experiment in the weightlessness of the ISS.
Alleged tomato thief innocent
US astronaut Francisco “Frank” Rubio was responsible for this project. After the tomato floated away without a trace during a harvesting operation more than six months ago, he was accused by his colleagues for a long time of having secretly eaten it himself. But now that has happened Tiny red nodules (or rather, its remains) have apparently still been found, as members of the seven-member ISS crew announced this week in a live broadcast to mark the 25th anniversary of the orbiting outpost.
“Our good friend Frank Rubio was accused of eating the tomato for quite a while. But we can relieve him. We found the tomato,” said NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, as space.com reports.
“Hopefully someone finds this little shriveled thing.”
She did not provide any information about where on the 108 meter long space station the tiny vegetable, which was around 2.5 centimeters tall, reappeared or exactly what condition it was in.
The news should come as a relief for Rubio, a lieutenant colonel in the US Army who returned to Earth at the end of September after 371 days in space – the longest time spent by a US astronaut in history. Immediately after landing, he had lamented the loss of his little red protégé in a briefing – and expressed the fear that he would now be forever branded as a tomato thief.
Healthy, weightless nutrition: lettuce from ISS’s own cultivation. : Image: NASA
“Hopefully one day someone will find her, this little shriveled thing,” he told reporters at the time, after saying he had been searching for her for about 20 hours. “I was pretty sure I had velcroed it in the right place. And when I came back, she was gone.”
Veg-05
The project that included the Rubio tomato is known as Veg-05. Officially, the effort is titled “Studying the productivity, nutritional value and acceptability of lettuce crops to complement the ISS food system.” The experiment aims to expand knowledge about astronaut nutrition during long missions.
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In addition to assessing the viability and effects of space travel on the growth of fruit plants under different lighting conditions, taste tests are also part of the study. In addition, a survey will be conducted among astronauts to determine whether working with plants in the space environment has a positive effect on their mental state and mood.
In any case, despite the tomato debacle, the returned Rubio spoke positively about his time on the intergalactic vegetable patch.
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