China's "Space Vegetables"

Palomar · 2004-09-06 12:43:15

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-04zzf.html]Short article

*Wow. Comments? I'd make a few, but this is new to me.

--Cindy

Rxke · 2004-09-06 14:28:09

Weird, but makes (some) sense...

A bit like acellerated evolution, i hope they screened those plants for toxic byproducts, but they probably did.

NASA did this with the LDEF (Long Duration Exposure er... Facility(?) basically a bus-sized structure with *lots* of materials on the outside and inside, exposed to space environment, to test what effect are on stuff they wanted to use for future ISS..)
They sent up a massive cache of tomatoseeds and some other seedstuff besides the paint, metal, plastic... test-items...
.
Then Challenger exploded, so LDEF became really LD. When they eventually retrieved it, they thought the seeds would've gone totally toasted by radiation, free oxy etc...

But it turned out a very big percentage sprouted and only one (1) plant was 'weird' (strange leaves) They sent seeds to schools etc, kids weren't allowed to eat the tomatoes, however....

They also sent up flowerseeds, a variety i forgot, but very expensive seeds, and these seeds turned out to yield vastly superior flowers! They grew faster, sprouted faster... Just like in the article, in fact.

There was an excellent article about LDEF in an old National Geographic, really worthwile to look it up.

John Creighton · 2004-09-06 15:26:56

Why not just simulate the radation on earth. Wouldn't that be cheaper?

Rxke · 2004-09-06 15:53:45

Probably... But a lot less fun... and less 'hi-tec' aura.

Talking about aura... Doing it on earth would give it a 'dirty nukes' connotation, in popular opinion, I guess...

Well, either space-based or Earth based, you couldn't get away with this 'radiate it till it mutates or changes its behaviour' in the Western world, I guess, it would cause a major uproar. It takes a 'weird' country like China to pull this off...

John Creighton · 2004-09-06 19:59:21

I think the uproar would be misplaced. Mutation is an important part of evolution.

dicktice · 2004-09-08 16:46:14

"Space vegetables," irradiated in orbit, eh? Calling an astronaut "Spaceman" takes on a whole new meaning. . . .

Rxke · 2004-09-08 23:14:04

Dick... Splendid!

Now the big question, of course, is: does a spaceman taste better after a mission on:

-ISS
-The Moon
-Mars?

Also, with which vegetables to serve said spaceman for best cullinary results? Send your thoughts to Zee Enterprise Mission, where super-cook Hoagland and his alien friends are anxiously waiting for replies to these important questions!

LtlPhysics · 2005-01-19 20:44:07

I'm under the impression that fruit flies have been irradiated in labs for decades and all of the mutations observed have been negative.

RobS · 2005-01-19 22:41:34

When I was a kid, you could get irradiated seeds (from a reactor, I suppose) and plant them. I can't remember whether I got them from school or from 4H. The seeds I planted didn't do anything unusual.

-- RobS

jfenciso · 2018-10-28 10:09:32

I recommend to use as crop candidates for establishing Martian agriculture based on the study from China.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a … 6508000593

They choose 14 crops including 4 food crops (wheat, rice, soybean and peanut) and 7 vegetables (Chinese cabbage, lettuce, radish, carrot, tomato, squash and pepper). Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), soybean (Glycine max L.) and peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) are main food crops in China. Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis var. communis), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia Lam.), radish (Raphanus sativus L.), carrot (Daucus carota L. var. sativa DC.), tomato (Lycopersicon escalentum L.), squash (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) and pepper (Capsicum frutescens L. var. longum Bailey) are 7 vegetables preferred by Chinese. Furthermore, coriander (Coriandum sativum L.), welsh onion (Allium fistulosum L. var. giganteum Makino) and garlic (Allium sativum L.) were selected as condiments to improve the taste of space crew.

The researchers will do a further study about the agronomic characteristics of the chosen crops.

SpaceNut · 2018-10-28 15:54:24

Thanks for the reposting... I hope you will notice the fixed posts...as they were quite stale....

I would hope that we have learned a bit over the 14 years since that post was made to start the topic....

elderflower · 2018-10-29 03:09:58

Litlphysics (in case you are still with us).
Didn't you know that the successful irradiated fruit flies grew huge and ate their researchers and then had to be eliminated using nuclear weapon "tests"?

Last edited by elderflower (2018-10-29 03:11:52)

jfenciso · 2018-10-29 05:11:09

I can't believe that the previous post was 2005 and I replied this 2018. #LOL

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-05 04:09:25

Duo undertake 7-hour spacewalk
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Duo_ … k_999.html

Chinese Astronauts Successfully Grow Rice Seedlings on New Space Station
https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-a … ce-station
"We have to find a sustainable food source for long-term space explorations."

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#1 2004-09-06 12:43:15

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#2 2004-09-06 14:28:09

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#3 2004-09-06 15:26:56

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#4 2004-09-06 15:53:45

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#5 2004-09-06 19:59:21

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#6 2004-09-08 16:46:14

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#7 2004-09-08 23:14:04

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#8 2005-01-19 20:44:07

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#9 2005-01-19 22:41:34

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#10 2018-10-28 10:09:32

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#11 2018-10-28 15:54:24

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#12 2018-10-29 03:09:58

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#13 2018-10-29 05:11:09

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

#14 2022-09-05 04:09:25

Re: China's "Space Vegetables"

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