Cabbage, amaranth, mustard and radish: the four vegetables planted by a team of three Italian scientists in a hyper-technological greenhouse in the Oman desert were collected and eaten, where the environmental conditions of Mars were reproduced. Sara Piccirillo of the Italian Space Agency, Luca Nardi of Enea and Francesco Cavalieri of the University of Milan have chosen these plants for their ability to adapt in an extreme environment and to grow up fast.
Four 'microgreens' whose vegetative cycle lasted a total of 15 days, the minimum period necessary for the growth of these varieties. The project, called 'HortExtreme' was set up as part of the Amadee-18 mission coordinated by the Austrian Space Forum. “The astronauts engaged in the mission in Oman have told us that the vegetables are good, they seasoned them with oil and salt. Soon a prototype of these crops will also be tested at high altitudes – explained Sara Piccirillo to the Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor news agency – and subsequently in Antarctica, to look for environmental conditions and above all temperatures that are even closer to those of Mars”.
