New Mexican Chili To Be the First Fruiting Plant Grown in Outer Space
Outer space isn’t exactly the most hospitable environment for botany, despite what the movie The Martian would have us believe, but this lucky New Mexico chili plant, selected by NASA, gets to be launched to the International Space Station in March 2020. The chili, from Española, New Mexico, will be part of NASA’s research on how to produce food outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Jacob Torres, an Española native and NASA researcher, said that the point of sending the chili plant into space is to prove that NASA’s Advanced Plant Habitat works for fruiting crops, as well as leafy greens. It would be the first fruiting plant grown by the US aboard the Space Station.