4 ms·

Couldn’t they have tested this indoors anywhere?

enticeing 9y ago
It seems like part of the reason might be to provide fresh vegetables in a place where they are very hard to get, to keep the researchers happy and healthy.
gleglegle 9y ago
They already have, at industrial scales.
- jessriedel 9y ago
  Yea, a refinedment of chrischen's question would be "what did performing this easy indoor experiment in Antarctica tell us that we didn't know before?".
  - pvaldes 9y ago
    Not much. Maybe that there is not much point in spending money moving 100Kg of water in vegetable's form all around the world when you can put 10 gram of seeds in your bag instead.
tw1010 9y ago
PR stunts also produce value, indirectly
- cpncrunch 9y ago
  How is it a PR stunt? They are doing the research so they can supply their German Antarctic research station.
detritus 9y ago
Given how many companies there are out here already offering container-based growing solutions, it seems like the basic principle's been tested outwith extreme environments.
baxtr 9y ago
That’s a conundrum, because “German scientists harvest their first indoor salad” would have never made to the top list on HN.
jlg23 9y ago
Nobody said they never did. I personally am thrilled by: * It works reliably enough to be useful in the most extreme inhabitated environments. (And this habitation is artificial and very expensive) * The logistics behind the experimental setup must have been pretty complex and all worked out. It makes me wonder whether people who manage artic stations get loaned to ESA/NASA and vv.[1] I would say that proving a technology under those circumstances is the ultimate proof of usability, something an artificial test setup can never provide. [1] Deploying something to space or the arctics both means that you can only fix a very limited set of problems on-the-fly. Everybody ask themselves whether they would bet someone's survival on their code or logistics.....

It seems like part of the reason might be to provide fresh vegetables in a place where they are very hard to get, to keep the researchers happy and healthy.

gleglegle 9y ago

They already have, at industrial scales.

jessriedel 9y ago
Yea, a refinedment of chrischen's question would be "what did performing this easy indoor experiment in Antarctica tell us that we didn't know before?".
- pvaldes 9y ago
  Not much. Maybe that there is not much point in spending money moving 100Kg of water in vegetable's form all around the world when you can put 10 gram of seeds in your bag instead.

tw1010 9y ago

PR stunts also produce value, indirectly

cpncrunch 9y ago
How is it a PR stunt? They are doing the research so they can supply their German Antarctic research station.

detritus 9y ago

Given how many companies there are out here already offering container-based growing solutions, it seems like the basic principle's been tested outwith extreme environments.

baxtr 9y ago

That’s a conundrum, because “German scientists harvest their first indoor salad” would have never made to the top list on HN.

jlg23 9y ago

Nobody said they never did. I personally am thrilled by: * It works reliably enough to be useful in the most extreme inhabitated environments. (And this habitation is artificial and very expensive) * The logistics behind the experimental setup must have been pretty complex and all worked out. It makes me wonder whether people who manage artic stations get loaned to ESA/NASA and vv.[1] I would say that proving a technology under those circumstances is the ultimate proof of usability, something an artificial test setup can never provide. [1] Deploying something to space or the arctics both means that you can only fix a very limited set of problems on-the-fly. Everybody ask themselves whether they would bet someone's survival on their code or logistics.....