Chumus in Space

I don't remember hearing this before but a little while back it was announced that  in early 2022, I think near the end of February 2022, there will be a Spacex mission to the International Space Station that will include an Israeli.

That it will include an Israeli is not the interesting part of this. The Israeli though will be bringing with him Chumus - chickpeas. His mission will be to try to row chickpeas in space to be able to make chumus so astronauts will have this high protein food available to them up there, locally sourced.

Yonatan Winetraub, an Israeli scientist, has designed a miniature greenhouse that uses LED lighting in which to grow the chickpeas.

From Arutz7:

Winetraub designed a project that will test the outer space potential of chickpea plants on the International Space Station in a tiny device he termed a “miniaturized greenhouse.” Special LEDs will be used to control plant growth.

“We don’t know if chickpeas can grow in space. This is something that has actually never been done before,” he said.

Other plants have been grown in space but never with a device to control their growth.

He explained that the technique, once perfected, will be important to growing crops on a space station, the moon, or another planet. The need for plants to sprout or fruit on command will be necessary as these will be essential food sources.

He picked chickpeas because of their high nutrient content and because they grow fast.

And also – most importantly – because you can make hummus from them.

“It’s, like — OK, let’s grow hummus! Let’s get it up there,” he said.

The biggest problem might be that they will have grown plenty of chumus but might not have any pita to eat it with. Maybe making pita in space should be the next project. And then shawarma.

sources: Ramon Foundation, JWeekly, RakiaMission

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