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Maybe nowhere within the universe is a contemporary, ripe tomato extra useful than on the Worldwide House Station, the place astronauts stay for months at a time subsisting primarily on prepackaged, shelf-stable items.
That’s why astronaut Frank Rubio grew to become the central determine in a lighthearted whodunnit that has taken months to resolve.
After Rubio harvested one of many first tomatoes ever grown in area earlier this year, in accordance with the astronaut, he admitted he misplaced it.
“I put it in a little bit bag, and one among my crewmates was doing a (public) occasion with some schoolkids, and I assumed it’d be form of cool to point out the youngsters — ‘Hey guys that is the primary tomato harvested in area,’” Rubio mentioned throughout an October media event. “I used to be fairly assured that I Velcroed it the place I used to be imagined to Velcro it … after which I got here again and it was gone.”
Within the microgravity setting of area, something not anchored to a wall is prone to floating away — destined to spend eternity hidden behind a nook or cranny throughout the soccer field-size orbiting laboratory and its labyrinthian passageways.
Rubio mentioned he most likely spent eight to twenty hours of his personal free time simply looking for that tomato.
“Sadly — as a result of that’s simply human nature — lots of people are like, ‘He most likely ate the tomato,’” Rubio mentioned. “And I wished to seek out it largely so I might show like I didn’t eat the tomato.”
However he by no means discovered it.
Rubio returned to Earth on September 27 with the valuable produce nonetheless misplaced aboard the area station.
It remained misplaced — till now.
Throughout a Wednesday information convention, members of the seven-person crew remaining on the area station revealed that they had lastly situated the tomato.
Rubio had “been blamed for fairly some time for consuming the tomato,” NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli mentioned. “However we will exonerate him.”
The astronauts didn’t reveal the place the tomato was or specify what state the produce was in when discovered.
Rubio surmised in October that it had most likely already shriveled into an unrecognizable rot.
Because of the humidity on the area station, “it most likely desiccated to the purpose the place you couldn’t inform what it was,” Rubio mentioned.
Case closed.
Rubio’s return to Earth in September was a historic second. His keep on the area station — which lasted greater than a yr — set a file for the longest a US astronaut has ever spent in microgravity.
Rubio initially anticipated to spend solely six months aboard the Worldwide House Station. As an alternative, he logged 371 days following the invention of a coolant leak coming from his unique trip — a Russian Soyuz spacecraft — whereas it was docked to the orbiting outpost.
In his October interview, Rubio acknowledged how arduous moments of the journey have been.
“I form of allowed myself a day to really feel unhappy and sorry for myself, after which I attempt to actually make a acutely aware choice to say OK let’s have perspective and let’s simply attempt to do one of the best job doable,” Rubio mentioned of studying his keep can be prolonged by one other six months.
Correction: A earlier model of this story misquoted the share humidity on the area station.