Posted on 02/09/22
| News Source: NY Post
Hummus is out of this world!
Israeli scientists are looking to grow chickpeas — the key ingredient in hummus — on the moon and planning to test hydroponic techniques for plant growth in zero gravity.
On Feb. 19, they will launch an experiment called “Space Hummus” on an unmanned craft from a NASA facility in Virginia to the International Space Station. Scientists will try growing the chickpeas in miniature greenhouses suited for travel to the moon, the next step of the mission.
They hope that this inaugural experiment controlling chickpea growth in space will ultimately lead to crop growth on the moon and Mars.
“Everybody wants to go to the moon – and even private individuals like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are talking about sending astronauts to the surface of the moon. The obvious question is, what are they going to eat?” Yonatan Winetraub, the founder of the experiment, and the co-founder of SpaceIL, the first private entity in history to reach the moon, told The Post, adding, “Where there’s hummus, there’s life.”