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the main task for all the crew members

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on board is executing the hundreds of

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science experiments taking place at any

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time during their expeditions

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the space station testing ground for a

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number of technologies that are going to

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make future missions beyond low earth

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orbit possible giving us the chance to

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test everything from life support

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systems to delays in communication even

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ways to grow food for the crews to eat

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one of those experiments on board right

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now is a compact greenhouse known as

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veggie which so far has grown lettuce

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and flowers and is going to be getting

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more seeds on the next spacex dragon

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mission targeted to launch next month

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recently my colleague brandy dean talked

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with dr joya masa the veggie project

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scientists about the experiment and why

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it's important to have a compact

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greenhouse for future space missions

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well veggies really a test fed for

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future life support technologies you

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know we're learning how to grow food for

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the astronauts um as they're away from

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earth longer you know longer durations

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and so

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right now we're

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we're using veggie to start to figure

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out the best ways to grow different

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types of crops

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and

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we'd like to be able to use it to give

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them supplemental salads on space

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station you know they don't get regular

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supplies of produce

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so one of the things that we often hear

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from the crew is that they really want

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more fresh vegetables so

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that um is kind of our near-term goal

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and as we learn more about growing these

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types of crops we'll be able to develop

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um more continuous types of productions

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the other big aspect i think you know

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for for nutrition for crew health you

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know a lot of the the foods may

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not store well for really long durations

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or um there might be some nutrients that

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the the package diet is a little low in

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so having this additional fresh

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available um nutrition for them could be

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really important as they're you know

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gone longer from earth

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and i think also the psychological

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benefit of having something green and

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growing when they're living and working

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in an extreme environment can be very

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important so we're using this you know

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it's a very small system for now but

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we're using it as a test bed to to

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develop larger systems as we develop our

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plans for the journey to mars

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those all sound like good reasons and i

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know you have already a couple of crops

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under your belt i think you used some of

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your lessons learned from the first

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harvest of lettuce to to put into the

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second harvest and then you um grew

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flowers on the next on the next round

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can you tell me a little bit about

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what the what the appeal of flowers were

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well so we selected the zinnia flowers

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as a test crop and we actually weren't

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sure when we would get the approval for

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the crew to to eat the lettuce and we

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didn't quite know when we were planning

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all this you know at what order would

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they would they be able to you know grow

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the second batch of lettuce right away

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we didn't want them to do that if we

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hadn't gotten

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the data back from the first set

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so we could get the food safety analysis

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performed to to have the crew able to

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eat them

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so instead we sent flowers that weren't

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really something that they'd like to eat

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but that were something that will give

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us a lot of information and something we

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hoped that they would enjoy to grow and

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they actually seemed to enjoy them

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we also wanted to test a longer duration

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crop and veggie and so the flowers

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actually take twice as long or more than

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lettuce we ended up growing this set of

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flowers for 90 days up there so this was

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a long duration test and it gave us a

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lot of information about long duration

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crops and flowering is really important

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for fruiting crops such as tomato which

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we hope to grow in the next couple of

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years because you have to have flowers

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before you can produce fruit and so

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flowering is a little harder in plants

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you know it takes a little more strict

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environmental conditions than just

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producing leaves so we really needed to

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see if veggie and the environment on the

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international space station were capable

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of producing everything that the plants

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needed for producing flowers

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wow i know i get excited about fresh

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tomatoes here on the ground so i'm sure

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they would on the space station oh yeah

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but i guess um i know you had a few

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setbacks even with the zinnia so can you

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tell us what you learned from that how

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you eventually got them on track and

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growing

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well um it was really scott kelly he did

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all the leg work for getting the zinnias

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on track and growing he did a wonderful

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job um so

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so one of the issues that we've been

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having with veggie is getting sufficient

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water to the plants you know plant roots

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need both water and oxygen and that's

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really tricky in microgravity where

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water tends to kind of form a ball and

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then the air

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may or may not you know mix well with

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with the water and so

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trying to get the right balance of water

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and air in the root zone has been kind

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of a challenge um so with the lettuce

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we had the crew water the the plants and

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we kind of knew the growth rate of

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lettuce and knew the amount of water to

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apply

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with the zinnias they were growing a

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little more slowly than we expected and

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so they didn't use as much water as we

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thought they would

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so there was actually too much water

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building up in the compartment and this

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led to some fungal growth on some of the

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plants that were in there and some some

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some responses of some of the plants you

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know they just were not happy and so

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scott noticed this he let us know

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you know we came up with some strategies

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that he could use including turning the

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fans on to hire

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and you know obviously cutting back on

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the amount of water and he took over the

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role of an autonomous gardener so this

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was a really big deal because this was

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something that the veggie team had

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wanted to get to the point where the

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crew could could do all of the gardening

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kind of on their own and just ask us for

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advice they're the ones who are seeing

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the plants and growing the plants

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but you know the way things are

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conducted on the space station it was a

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little challenging to

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um to implement that because you know we

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have to have procedures for everything

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so when when scott had asked you know

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let me figure out how to deal with this

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we were delighted because that was

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really what we wanted to be able to do

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and and he did a wonderful job he

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managed to um you know save a couple of

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the plants that that were having some

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issues and they grew and they flowered

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really well and we had um you know we're

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bringing back samples of some of the

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fungus that grew on some of the other

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plants so we'll be able to figure out

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really what that was and and figure out

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how to prevent it in the future

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you mentioned that you'll be getting a

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look back at some of the some of the

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plants when when do you expect to

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receive them and i know that that takes

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a while some time to get things back

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from the space station so the second set

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of lettuce that they grew they they ate

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some of it but they also saved some of

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that for science and we had um

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swabs as well to look at microbiology

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and and some plant pillow samples and

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those are coming back on the next spacex

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flight when it returns spacex 8 and also

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our zinnia

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fungal samples will be coming back on

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that flight as well as some of the

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flowers from the zinnia experiment so

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we had

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scott save some of these flowers and

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we're going to look to see if seeds have

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developed and if those seeds are viable

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so those are all coming back when the

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next spacex flight returns

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and then we'll have the rest of the

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zinnia plant samples and plant pillows

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coming back on spacex nine when that one

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returns okay and you're also sending

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some new seeds up on on spacex so can

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you tell us what what to expect next

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yes so we're really excited um the next

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set of seats we're sending we're sending

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some more of the red romaine lettuce

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because the crew obviously enjoyed

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growing and eating that but we're also

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sending um a small chinese cabbage the

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varieties called tokyo bakana

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and it's a it's a really delicious

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chinese cabbage it grows really fast and

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it's you know

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eaten raw in salads and we actually

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selected this variety we did a whole

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series of tests with a number of

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different leafy green crops

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and we looked at the growth

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of these in plant pillows we looked at

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the um

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the nutrition of the actual crops and

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then we looked at the

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organoleptic

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which factors which is basically the

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taste tests so we we grew them and we

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sent produce to johnson space center

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where they have a food lab and in the

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food lab they actually conducted taste

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tests so a number of people got to taste

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the different varieties that we sent and

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this one was the highest rated so

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everyone loved it in terms of flavor and

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texture and

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it was just really really highly

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approved so because of that we we move

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forward to send this crop as the next

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crop that we're flying to see if the