NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio’s Lost Tomato Anecdote and ISS Tomato Experiment Results

NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, International Space StationIn an interview this fall following his return to Earth from the ISS, he shared a little mission anecdote: After harvesting one of the first tomatoes grown in space and bagging it for a presentation, the bag and its contents disappeared. When there was no trace of the tomatoes left, the other astronauts jokingly called Rubio. They accused him of eating tomatoes.

Here are the lost tomatoes

Eight months later, at the beginning of December, the missing tomato reappeared. A photo shared by NASA shows what is actually inside the missing sample. two tomatoes and interestingly, all things considered, they don’t look bad at all. NASA in a blog post “Other than some color changes, there was no visible microbial or fungal growth.” he wrote.

NASA has been experimenting with ways to grow food on the ISS for years, studying how the space environment affects plant growth. Red dwarf tomatoes are grown using the eXposed Root On-Orbit Test System or XROOTS He was raised under a program called. before its return in September 2023 Staying on the ISS for 371 days The record-breaking Rubio collected a batch of tomatoes in March to be sent back to Earth and examined for the VEG-05 study.

Rubio was also planning to show these samples to schoolchildren, but according to his statements, he forgot to secure the bag in which the tomatoes were placed. Rubio also says he spent “eight to 20 hours” looking for him but couldn’t find him. Even though the tomatoes have been found, it is still not clear in which corner of the ISS they have been hiding all this time.

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2023-12-17 18:30:00
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