If You Couldn’t Tell Already, NASA Is Having A Great Year. From Pluto To Food Grown In Space, Even

Space Gardening 101

You can’t escape eating (or gardening!) your vegetables, even if you’re in space. On Aug. 10, astronauts on the International Space Station sampled their first space grown salad. This freshly harvest red romaine lettuce was grown in the “Veggie” plant growth chamber that is designed to make gardens flourish in weightlessness.

In a weightless environment, there is no up and down, so roots grow in all directions. Water and soil, the materials used to anchor these plants and allow for root growth tend to float away.

How Do We Grow Plants in Space? 

1. Plant Pillows

The Veggie chamber helps solve the problems of a weightless environment by using ‘plant pillows’, sounds comfy right? These pillows are bags filled with material for growing plants in space. 

2. Wicks

Wicks are implanted into the bags and are used to draw water from inside the pillow to the plant.

These wicks also provide a place to glue the seeds. It’s important to orient the seeds so roots will grow ‘down’, and shoots that emerge will push out of the bag.

3. LED Lights

LED lights are used for photosynthesis and give the shoots a sense of direction so they keep growing upward. The walls of the Veggie chamber can expand to make room for the plant as it grows.

The purple/pinkish hue surrounding the plants in Veggie is the result of a combination of the red and blue lights, which is what the plants need to grow. Green LEDS were added so the plants look like edible food rather than weird purple plants.

Why are we growing plants in space?

When astronauts travel on deep space missions, like Mars, they will need to be self-sufficient for long periods of time. Having the ability to grow their own food is a big step in that direction. There is also a desire to grow flowering vegetables in space, which is why we are currently tending to zinnia flowers on orbit. Growing these flowering plants will help us understand longer duration growing plants that have to flower in space, such as tomatoes.

What’s Next? The next SpaceX delivery will include seeds for a small cabbage and additional red romaine lettuce. Upcoming experiments will use various ratios of red and blue lights and different fertilizers in attempts to improve crop yield, nutrition and flavor. The findings from these experiments can be utilized both on Earth and in space.

In addition to the nutrition benefits of growing vegetables in space, the psychological benefits are also significant. Having living plants can help with stress and increase the crews’ enjoyment. It provides the sights, smells and tastes of Earth.

To learn more about gardening in space, watch ScienceCast HERE.

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Not to take credit away from the Lord, but if I had created the world, in all modesty, certain things would have come out better. But unfortunately such was not the case.

Cinema Paradiso (1988) dir. Giuseppe Tornatore

my snoop 💛

After 65 years of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the whole Peanuts gang, what keeps us coming back again and again?

“The ‘Peanuts’ story is arguably one of the longest-running works of contemporary American literature of our time,” author and editor Chip Kidd told us today as we explored the new “Peanuts” movie and his new Schulz retrospective, “Only What’s Necessary.” 

(Charlie Brown is Back, October 23, 2015)

[Images courtesy of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California]

Sarah Silverman

Maybe it’s your awesome songs or maybe it’s the way When I look at your face i can tell that you’re not going to be stopping soon or even slowing down And if we keep up this pace pretty soon we’ll know the name Of every kid and every grown-up booking house shows in their town.

male moans (source)

☆‧°‧°༄ aesthetic blog ☆‧°‧°༄

fantasy

I catch myself staring a little too long. I can't help it that among a crowd of despicable teenage boys reeking of sweat and ignorance, there you sit, with your cunning smile and your green eyes that are forever fixed in an expression of mockery toward every absurdity in this high school. My mind cannot help but wander to the place where I am alone with you. With led zeppelin in the background, we laugh about all the mindless morons who are far behind us. We curse capitalism, we sigh, and our eyes lock.

I am about to tell you how relieved I am to have found someone to relate to, when you glance down at my chest, unashamedly letting your eyes roll up and down my body. I look down and silently chuckle. "I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable. I'm just amazed by your beautiful body that matches your beautiful mind." you say to me in a hoarse voice. I smile a great big smile. "Similar to the mind, the body is most appreciated when explored." I tell you as I take your hand in mine, slowly bringing it up to my chest. I inch closer to you on the bed, placing your hand on my breast. I look at you with a look of innocence and of desire. Your breathing becomes a bit shallow. I laugh, and lightly graze my fingers up your thigh, walking each finger back down. I run my hands over your thigh, nice and slow, watching your mouth open slightly and your leg twitch. You bite your lip. Your other hand is on my chest now, you are squeezing my breasts and beginning to unbutton my shirt. I run my hand over the bulge in your shorts, lingering there..you breathe in sharply and laugh nervously. I lean over, and whisper into your ear: "I want you to take control."

Immediately your hands are on my throat. I am lying down and you are kneeling over me, one hand exploring this sensitive newfound territory; my curves, my skin. You rub my inner thigh and I let out a small moan. You look at me, and you tease me, tickling my thighs some more. "You like that?" you ask me as your heart beats faster and harder, watching me squirm and sigh with delight. I nod. "Mm- uh huh," is what I manage to reply. You are running your hands up and down my legs, making me crazy.

You look at me, place your hand on my stomach, and slowly slide down until your face is between my legs. You pull my underwear to the side and put your mouth as close to me as you can. You breathe. The hot air makes me twitch. You stay like this for what feels like forever until you finally decide to flick your tongue against my pussy. You flick up and down, up and down. "Ooh, just like that. Y-yes, oh fuck yeah right there," I exclaim. You love it when I talk dirty.

You pull away, and begin to kiss my thighs. You trace your tongue all the way from my knee to my innermost upper thigh. You then grab one of my feet and stroke the bottom of it. I cry out uncontollably as you do it two more times. You lick my pussy again, finding my clit and sucking on it. Meanwhile you are rubbing the sole of my feet and gently tickling me. I laugh, moan and shudder all at once. You lift my legs up and place them on your shoulders. I wrap them around your neck and hump the air, forward and backward, begging you to be as close to me as you can. You do not hold back. You slip your tongue in and out of my throbbing pussy, each time more intense than before. My tits are bouncing all over. I grab onto your hair with one hand as I gently play with your ear lobe. This drives you crazy. "Please don't stop," I whisper. "Ohhh, oh!" I'm whimpering. The sensations intensify and my mind is trapped in a state of bliss; nothing exists outside of you and me. My body is aching for you. "I'm gonna cum, oh fuck I'm gonna cum!" An intense orgasm overtakes me, making my body twinge and jerk and shake, until I am left shaking on the bed. You run your tired tongue over my pussy a couple more times and I moan and shiver at your touch. We lay there together for some time, your fingers grazing over my vulnerable body, before getting ready for round two. 😉