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posted by chromas on Friday April 06 2018, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the crops-from-outer-space dept.

Scientists have harvested the first vegetables grown in the EDEN-ISS greenhouse at Germany's Neumeyer-Station III in Antarctica. 3.6 kg of salad greens, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes were grown inside the greenhouse, which uses a closed water cycle with no soil.

An air management system controls the temperature and humidity, removes contaminants (such as ethylene, microbes, and viruses) and regulates the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide to optimize growth. Water-cooled LEDs deliver lighting with a spectrum that is 15% blue (400-500 nm), 10% green (500-600 nm), ~75% red (600-700 nm), and ~2% far-red (700-750 nm). A nutrient delivery system stores stock solutions, acids/bases, deionized water, and nutrient solution, and pumps them into the cultivation system as needed.

The final crop yield for the shipping container sized facility is estimated to be 4.25 kg per week (250g each of lettuce, chard, rugula, and spinach, 1 kg of tomatoes, 600g of sweet peppers, 1 kg of cucumbers, 250g of radishes, 100g of strawberries, and 300g of herbs). The purpose of the project is to test food production technologies that could be used on the International Space System, Moon, Mars missions, etc. It will also provide fresh food supplementation year-round for the crew of Neumeyer-Station III (estimated population of 9 in the winter, 50 in the summer).

EDEN-ISS has some advantages (open, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.60431) (DX) over the ISS's current Veggie system, including a higher available growth surface, longer possible production cycle using complete nutrient solution circulation, better reliability and safety, and the ability to grow taller crops (up to 60 cm). The system is designed to be flown to the ISS as a payload of EDR II experimental inserts.

Related: Tomorrow, NASA Astronauts Will Finally Eat Fresh, Microgravity-Grown Veggies
SpaceX Launches CRS-14 Resupply Mission to the ISS (carried the competing Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @09:47AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @09:47AM (#663356)

    IIRC, the sense of "bitterness" changes dramatically as you age. Old people, in general, don't sense bitterness as strongly as younger people. Pickles, for example, are almost inedible for most young people, especially children, while parents and grandparents like it very much.

    This is a source of much parent/child conflict, as parents simply fail to consider that their child's sense of taste may be simply different from their own, and assume that the child is exaggerating the dislike or even disgust they feel. World would be so much better if adults retained more of their childhood memories...

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday April 06 2018, @10:20AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 06 2018, @10:20AM (#663364) Journal

    Pickles, for example, are almost inedible for most young people, especially children, while parents and grandparents like it very much.

    My experience says otherwise in regards with sour things: I can't stand taste those extremely sour gums that the kids seems to enjoy that much. I also remember as a kid I enjoyed green (i.e. unripened) apples and plums and today I can't stand even ripened Granny Smith.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford