Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who’s been aboard the International Space Station, keeps sharing interesting stuff about the orbital outpost frequently. He recently captured a light show that makes the ISS look like an orbiting disco.
While astronauts aboard ISS do celebrate birthdays 250 miles above Earth, disco is yet to be a part of the space laboratory. What Pesquet shared was simply the LED lights of Veggie, one of ISS’ plant growing facilities.
Planning for long space missions
Astronauts aboard the space station have been studying plant cultivation in microgravity conditions for almost a decade. The work is imperative if space agencies are planning long missions to the Moon, Mars, and other planets, as limited room for supplies means astronauts will be required to grow a supplemental food crop.
The plant-based experiments on the space station are done to find out which crops grow best in space, and whether the unique conditions affect their nutritional value. The different LED lights that are fitted into Veggie enable astronauts to see which plants respond best to which wavelengths. NASA said that since plants reflect a lot of green light and use blue and red wavelengths more, the Veggie usually glows magenta pink.
ISS menu getting more variety
So far, most of the plants cultivated aboard the ISS have been leafy greens, and the astronauts are allowed to add them to the ISS menu. Since an entire diet of green leaves doesn’t sound appealing for astronauts, other foodstuffs will also be transported by spacecraft, possibly with a space oven if a permanent base is ever set up on Moon or Mars.
Previously, it was reported that astronauts aboard the ISS were trying to grow spicy peppers in space for the first time. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough put 48 chili pepper seeds in the ISS’ Advanced Planet Habitat (APH). The aim of the experiment is to see its growth and then harvest them to determine if it can be added to the ISS menu. Growing chili peppers in space is a more complex process because chili peppers take longer to grow compared to other vegetables, which is a challenge to nurture.
