PH-04 Chile Peppers in Space

Growing plants in spaceflight presents challenges to achieve optimal plant growth and productivity. One of NASA's goals is growing edible crops in spaceflight to supplement the astronauts' diet with fresh vegetables and assess food safety of the crops. It is important to understand the optimal growing conditions for crops grown in spaceflight conditions. Leafy greens have been grown on the International Space Station in the Veggie plant chamber and were safe for the astronauts to eat. The Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), an enclosed, controlled plant growth facility on the ISS has also been used to grow edible plants. The technology demonstration in the APH grew chile peppers, Capsicum annum c.v. NuMex Espanola Improved. This was one of the longest continuous plant growth experiments conducted on ISS (137 days), producing 26 pepper fruit.