NASA grows sweet potatoes on the universe

The type of food regulated for astronauts while flying is both poor and expensive, and they want something 'very family' . Why not try to plant some kind of material right in the space of the spacecraft? NASA experts think so and they chose sweet potatoes, a familiar dish in America.

There was a time when food for astronauts was produced in tubes like toothpaste tubes. For example, when Yuri Gagarin flew 108 minutes in orbit, he was prepared to give him nine different food containers, each of 165 grams. Among them are 'borsch' (red radish soup, popular Russian food), minced meat with potatoes and juices. Gagarin was forced to eat all the offers to learn from the experience.

Time of flights increased. Crushed dishes are many things in the tube that have gone into the past. As for the number of calories and the balance of nutrients, it is out of the question, but for half a year every meal will squeeze the same fine-grained tube to eat, who can stand it. Currently the tubes are only used to contain liquid or loose things such as sauces, spices, honey, mustard . Since the 1970s, 'cosmic diets' have fresh fruits and vegetables, but the time to protect it is very short on it.

The first sweet potatoes will be grown in the universe.

The task of experts today is to make meals for astronauts in flights lasting up to 3 years or more, enough to fly to distant planets. At present, the cost of their meals on ISS is up to $ 600. That's not to mention the cost of bringing food to orbit. If self-sufficient astronauts will be much cheaper.

One of the difficulties is the very small manned deck deck for cultivation. Therefore, it is necessary to select plants with high yield and require less area.

A few years ago, China's Haikou company launched a potato market with seeds from the spacecraft. The potato contains more starch than regular potatoes, so the tubers are purple, so-called 'purple orchids' for 'luxury' . Cosmic potatoes were brought into the hotel to be processed into 60 different dishes, sold very expensive for curious diners, but only for advertising because of where to get a large amount of mass.

Could it be that from this story suggested NASA choose sweet potatoes to grow in the universe?

The issue has concluded: Regarding food value, it is much higher than regular sweet potatoes. Weight of one bulb can be up to 10kg, contains 30% starch, including 6% glucose and other beneficial substances such as carotene, mineral salts and many other vitamins.

Another advantage of sweet potatoes is that it grows very quickly in enclosed spaces and does not affect other crops that grow. Sweet potatoes are vines, seed-like, each occupying an area of ​​4.5x1.5m. NASA sought to limit its spread by a wire-shaped pyramid. The experiment showed that cutting did not affect productivity.

It is not possible to cut the tops at the top of sweet potato strings because it is there that plants produce hormones, stimulating the growth of sweet potato root and root systems. Tree sprout is cut for people to eat, for example, making salat is very good, adding to the diet on board. From the experiment, it was also found that this planting method could be used to grow sweet potatoes on Earth to increase productivity.

Sweet potato plants proved to be the best to go with people to space during their travels because of small areas with high productivity. Conical climbing platforms can be used for other plants as well.

Photosynthesis will be done with LED lights. The use of LED light for photosynthesis is a NASA project in space conditions.