5 ms·

No joy in this article, zero mention of state of tomato when it was found. Also, they blamed a guy for a while for having eaten the tomato, his name is now cle

No joy in this article, zero mention of state of tomato when it was found. Also, they blamed a guy for a while for having eaten the tomato, his name is now cleared. I was blaming him too thinking that ISS food was dehydrated or space paste. However, looks like they get some decent stuff like taco kits and pizzas at least time to time: https://www.nasa.gov/history/space-station-20th-food-on-iss/ https://www.nasa.gov/history/space-station-20th-food-on-iss/

resolutebat 3y ago
It's been sitting for eight months at room temperature in a plastic bag, I think we can pretty safely assume it was in bad shape.
- Broken_Hippo 3y ago
  No, we can't. We have some idea how it would look on earth. Pretty bad, if recognizable at all. But I have no clue how deterioration and rot happen in space. Do the microbes that help break it down exist? Do fruit flies hitch rides to space? How does gravity affect decomposition? Do the conditions of being in orbit have any sort of preservation effect? Yeah. I'd imagine it wasn't fresh, but it just isn't a given.
  - theonlybutlet 3y ago
    Oxidation resulting in Lycopene degradation and isomerization. It probably is a shrivelled up dehydrated tomato. But most probably edible. Wouldn't get much pleasure out of eating it though. Don't see bags of dehydrated tomatoes on the shop-shelf.
    - pcthrowaway 3y ago
      It might sun-dry pretty well without a pesky atmosphere in the way
    - em-bee 3y ago
      i don't know if sun dried tomatoes are top shelf articles, but they are sold as delicacies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-dried_tomato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-dried_tomato
      - tomatotomato31 3y ago
        In Germany you can get them nearly everywhere. I'm surprised so many find it weird
    - Broken_Hippo 3y ago
      Don't see bags of dehydrated tomatoes on the shop-shelf I do. I have a bag in the cabinet. I use it most often on pizzas and pasta. Dehydrated tomatoes are delicious and are generally labeled "sun dried" even when there is no sun involved in the drying. Plus, I can order tomato powder and use it for things. Admittedly, I don't care for eating the dried tomatoes plain as it concentrates the flavor more (or differently?) than tomato paste does.
      - justinclift 3y ago
        Sun dried tomatoes seem to work well in pizza dough too. As in throw in a few chunks while making the base, and the flavour seems to transfer well without screwing things up. :)
  - saiya-jin 3y ago
    Well, you only need those bacteria to make it rot and I can guarantee you that there are billions (or more likely large numbers of trillions) of various bacteria there, I would expect tens of thousands various subtypes (sorry for incorrect naming, just an average Joe). Just because they are now in low gravity doesn't mean they will stop eating whatever they can. And without much gravity to hold them down I would expect they can actually spread more easily (imagine one cough or sneeze where droplets just go in straight line till hitting something). On their skin, behind their nails, in their mouth, in their bowels and so on. Plus on and in everything else. No way getting rid of those
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      Isn't the ISS a high rate of mutation environment for such creatures as well due to the radiation?
  - akira2501 3y ago
    > Do the conditions of being in orbit have any sort of preservation effect? There's no reason to suspect they would. Even so, it is unlikely we could ever take advantage of this in any meaningful or efficient way. > Do the microbes that help break it down exist? Almost certainly. They're in excrement and the astronauts are allowed to bring some personal effects on board. Speaking of excrement, on Apollo, they didn't have an advanced toilet, so they just used bags. Apparently, they were instructed to seal the bag after adding an antibacterial agent, for fear of them eventually inflating from decomposition products and then popping. Also.. quick search shows that ISS astronauts after 6 months to a year have _more_ bacteria on their skin and _might_ be why astronauts experience higher levels of inflammation in general. Finally, let me drop my favorite ISS fact here, if you're doing work outside the ISS that requires turning a wrench, you must turn it _very_ slowly, less than 1 full turn per minute, because the low gravity environment means the ISS as a whole weighs next to nothing and vibrational modes from wrenching can setup very easily. This fact is specifically flagged in several spacewalk manuals.
    - pcthrowaway 3y ago
      > Finally, let me drop my favorite ISS fact here, if you're doing work outside the ISS that requires turning a wrench, you must turn it _very_ slowly, less than 1 full turn per minute, because the low gravity environment means the ISS as a whole weighs next to nothing and vibrational modes from wrenching can setup very easily. This fact is specifically flagged in several spacewalk manuals Can you point me to a resource where I can read more about this? The closest thing I could find was an article from 1998 that stresses the importance of being tethered while wrenching so that you rotate the bolt, rather than the bolt rotating you: https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/1204/120498.us.us.3.html https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/1204/120498.us.us.3.html edit: I still can't find anything explaining this, but I did find https://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section14.htm https://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section14.htm and https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/143159main_suited_for_spacewalking.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/143159main_s... which suggest bolt-driving power tools are used during spacewalks (which presumably get more than 1 RPM)
      - 3y ago
  - m463 3y ago
    For all we know, there could be effects from radiation passing by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation
- voytec 3y ago
  > It's been sitting for eight months at room temperature in a plastic bag, I think we can pretty safely assume it was in bad shape. At some point there were no bacteria which could decompose big fallen trees. More and more fallen trees increased pressure on the ones beneath and some time later we've got coal and diamonds. Tomato in a clean-ish room in a space lab may have deteriorated the same way that McDonald's burgers do in a kitchen environment full of nasty bacteria and mold spores - not much.

resolutebat 3y ago

It's been sitting for eight months at room temperature in a plastic bag, I think we can pretty safely assume it was in bad shape.

Broken_Hippo 3y ago
No, we can't. We have some idea how it would look on earth. Pretty bad, if recognizable at all. But I have no clue how deterioration and rot happen in space. Do the microbes that help break it down exist? Do fruit flies hitch rides to space? How does gravity affect decomposition? Do the conditions of being in orbit have any sort of preservation effect? Yeah. I'd imagine it wasn't fresh, but it just isn't a given.
- theonlybutlet 3y ago
  Oxidation resulting in Lycopene degradation and isomerization. It probably is a shrivelled up dehydrated tomato. But most probably edible. Wouldn't get much pleasure out of eating it though. Don't see bags of dehydrated tomatoes on the shop-shelf.
  - pcthrowaway 3y ago
    It might sun-dry pretty well without a pesky atmosphere in the way
  - em-bee 3y ago
    i don't know if sun dried tomatoes are top shelf articles, but they are sold as delicacies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-dried_tomato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-dried_tomato
    - tomatotomato31 3y ago
      In Germany you can get them nearly everywhere. I'm surprised so many find it weird
  - Broken_Hippo 3y ago
    Don't see bags of dehydrated tomatoes on the shop-shelf I do. I have a bag in the cabinet. I use it most often on pizzas and pasta. Dehydrated tomatoes are delicious and are generally labeled "sun dried" even when there is no sun involved in the drying. Plus, I can order tomato powder and use it for things. Admittedly, I don't care for eating the dried tomatoes plain as it concentrates the flavor more (or differently?) than tomato paste does.
    - justinclift 3y ago
      Sun dried tomatoes seem to work well in pizza dough too. As in throw in a few chunks while making the base, and the flavour seems to transfer well without screwing things up. :)
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  Well, you only need those bacteria to make it rot and I can guarantee you that there are billions (or more likely large numbers of trillions) of various bacteria there, I would expect tens of thousands various subtypes (sorry for incorrect naming, just an average Joe). Just because they are now in low gravity doesn't mean they will stop eating whatever they can. And without much gravity to hold them down I would expect they can actually spread more easily (imagine one cough or sneeze where droplets just go in straight line till hitting something). On their skin, behind their nails, in their mouth, in their bowels and so on. Plus on and in everything else. No way getting rid of those
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Isn't the ISS a high rate of mutation environment for such creatures as well due to the radiation?
- akira2501 3y ago
  > Do the conditions of being in orbit have any sort of preservation effect? There's no reason to suspect they would. Even so, it is unlikely we could ever take advantage of this in any meaningful or efficient way. > Do the microbes that help break it down exist? Almost certainly. They're in excrement and the astronauts are allowed to bring some personal effects on board. Speaking of excrement, on Apollo, they didn't have an advanced toilet, so they just used bags. Apparently, they were instructed to seal the bag after adding an antibacterial agent, for fear of them eventually inflating from decomposition products and then popping. Also.. quick search shows that ISS astronauts after 6 months to a year have _more_ bacteria on their skin and _might_ be why astronauts experience higher levels of inflammation in general. Finally, let me drop my favorite ISS fact here, if you're doing work outside the ISS that requires turning a wrench, you must turn it _very_ slowly, less than 1 full turn per minute, because the low gravity environment means the ISS as a whole weighs next to nothing and vibrational modes from wrenching can setup very easily. This fact is specifically flagged in several spacewalk manuals.
  - pcthrowaway 3y ago
    > Finally, let me drop my favorite ISS fact here, if you're doing work outside the ISS that requires turning a wrench, you must turn it _very_ slowly, less than 1 full turn per minute, because the low gravity environment means the ISS as a whole weighs next to nothing and vibrational modes from wrenching can setup very easily. This fact is specifically flagged in several spacewalk manuals Can you point me to a resource where I can read more about this? The closest thing I could find was an article from 1998 that stresses the importance of being tethered while wrenching so that you rotate the bolt, rather than the bolt rotating you: https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/1204/120498.us.us.3.html https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/1204/120498.us.us.3.html edit: I still can't find anything explaining this, but I did find https://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section14.htm https://msis.jsc.nasa.gov/sections/section14.htm and https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/143159main_suited_for_spacewalking.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/143159main_s... which suggest bolt-driving power tools are used during spacewalks (which presumably get more than 1 RPM)
    - 3y ago
- m463 3y ago
  For all we know, there could be effects from radiation passing by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation
voytec 3y ago
> It's been sitting for eight months at room temperature in a plastic bag, I think we can pretty safely assume it was in bad shape. At some point there were no bacteria which could decompose big fallen trees. More and more fallen trees increased pressure on the ones beneath and some time later we've got coal and diamonds. Tomato in a clean-ish room in a space lab may have deteriorated the same way that McDonald's burgers do in a kitchen environment full of nasty bacteria and mold spores - not much.