Happy Fourth of July! Over Coffee® is on holiday-weekend hiatus this week. Please enjoy this re-posting of one of our top 2022 episodes, so far, as we celebrate freedom and innovation on our country’s 246th birthday!

This post and podcast, and Two Maverix® Multimedia, are not, in any way, shape or form, affiliated with, nor endorsed by, NASA. (We just consider growing crops in space one of the coolest science applications we’ve seen!)

Ten years ago, would you ever have believed that fresh vegetables could grow in space? Or that an astronaut could grow and arrange a bouquet of flowers in zero gravity?

But all that has been happening since 2014.

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That’s the year NASA Project Scientist Dr. Gioia Massa and her team developed the first-ever food production system for the International Space Station.

Since then, a number of crops have grown aboard the ISS. Astronauts first enjoyed fresh lettuce with their meals in 2015. In 2016, astronaut Scott Kelly shared images of the “Space Flower”–the first zinnia grown aboard the ISS. And in November,, 2021, astronauts had a “taco party” aboard the ISS as they enjoyed the first green chile peppers grown in space.

NASA Project Scientist Matt Romeyn served as the principal investigator for NASA’s Plant Habitat-04 experiment. The goal: to explore the possibility of growing chile peppers in space.

And much, much more is coming.

Gioia and Matt talked about their experiences, discussed what’s involved in growing crops aboard the ISS and offered a look at the future. (Hint: if the astronauts love fresh-grown tomatoes, they will be thrilled!)

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• What first inspired Matt to pursue space science as his profession;

• Some of the most exciting milestones Gioia has experienced in her research and development of space crops since our 2018 conversation;

• How a “happy accident” led to the first plant transplant in space;

• Considerations involved, for Matt, when the ISS crew members called him for advice on the transplant experiment;

• The astronauts’ psychological responses to the plants, growing aboard the International Space Station;

• A closer look at the crew’s response to that first crop of chile peppers!;

• What it’s like to monitor the plants aboard the APH (Advanced Plant Habitat) from Kennedy Space Center;

• An experiment that could ultimately allow astronauts to choose which crops they’ll grow aboard the ISS, pulling from a “seed bank”;

• The current food-production technology operating aboard the ISS:

• One of the coolest research findings Matt has had, with the “space crops”, in the past year;

• Some of the effects of microgravity on plants;

• Crop-growing challenges involved, as NASA plans for the Artemis moon missions, and possibly for a mission to Mars;

• What’s happening with the planned ISS tomato crop;

• Some additional technology which NASA sent to the ISS, for watering crops in space;

• Additional new experiments, which will go up to the International Space Station later this year;

• The Advanced Plant Habitat’s record-breaking work with the chile peppers;

• What’s been most fun for Matt and Gioia, in their research and development of technologies and methods for growing crops in space, within the last six months!;

• Some of the resources which NASA offers, both for citizen science and for educators.

And, heads-up: the Growing Beyond Earth® classroom-based citizen-science program has a virtual information scheduled on July 26th, for educators who’d like to get their students involved during the 2022-2023 semester! Here’s the link for information.