How are space chili peppers “made”?

Eating has always been a big deal in the field of manned spaceflight. With the continuous upgrading of space food technology, basically all food on the ground can now be taken into space. However, except for fresh fruits, all other foods are pre-processed compressed, canned and packaged foods, and most of them have to be heated before eating.

Long-term space missions have become a big trend among astronauts, and eating only packaged food is inevitably boring after a long time. It is also difficult to carry too much natural food of fruits and vegetables at once if they are going to carry out longer or more distant exploration missions. This is when the importance of spaceflight breeding becomes apparent.

To select seeds for space breeding, the first thing to consider is the nutritional content, followed by whether it can meet the requirements of space cultivation and whether it is good for planting.

Take chili peppers, its own vitamin C content is relatively high, sweet peppers, fruit peppers, vegetable peppers, etc., eat fresh taste; chili peppers will also bloom, ornamental degree is also high, the smell is refreshing. In addition, the pepper plant is relatively small, planted to take up less space, the branches are more firm, in the microgravity of the space environment can also support the normal growth of the plant. In this way, chili peppers have naturally become one of the preferred varieties for space breeding.

Of course, with today's technology, in addition to peppers, it has also been possible to realize the planting of strawberries, eggplants, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables in space.

Technically speaking, the overall difficulty of space breeding is not particularly high anymore. Things like light, temperature, and fertility required for plant growth in a space environment have better solutions. The only thing that is more difficult to deal with is watering.

On the ground can use sensors to detect soil moisture, to do timely watering; while the space station affected by microgravity, water droplets will be attached to the sensor, resulting in sensor failure, obviously the substrate has been lack of water, the sensor may also show that the water is sufficient.

So the space station watering is first all the water out, and then air-water separation, and finally the water into the substrate, timed to carry out this whole set of cyclic operation. This leads to although the plant incubator planting area is not large, supporting pumps, valves, pipes and other accessories is a huge set of devices.

At present, there is also an important issue is to systematically study clearly the scientific laws of plant growth in space. Take wheat as an example, what is the difference between its yield grown in space and on the ground? What is the law of photosynthesis in space to produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide? These are questions that scientists from all over the world are eager to explore.

Through aerospace breeding, China has bred a series of varieties of food crops, vegetables, flowers, pasture and other species, and made a series of achievements in key technologies, germplasm innovation, and industrialization and application of varieties. At present, these varieties are also widely promoted nationwide, playing an indispensable role in boosting local economic development.