Space Potato Hits the Streets

gasmanpopey writes to tell us that sweet potato seeds sent to space as a part of China's Shenzhou VI mission are hitting the streets as a part of special Valentine's day meals. While supporters are trying to claim better flavor and better nutrition there doesn't seem to be anything beyond a pure novelty angle.

Space tomato seeds - NASA

[kbrosnan]

NASA has been sending seeds to space for a long time. In 1989 I, and all my classmates, received packages of tomato seeds as part of LDEF Experiment P0004-01 [nasa.gov]. A little bit of Googleing turned up Park Seed SEEDS project [parkseed.com] which nicely describes the project. Most of my classmates killed their plants. I planted mine in the family garden and bore fruit. That was quite tasty. As I recall there was some legalese that said don't eat the fruit that the plants bear lest you turn into a tomato based superhero.

The Long Duration Exposure Facility project [nasa.gov] main page.

Re:Moo

[Gospodin]

Change subject to: Mao.

This reminds me of the Lysenkoist agricultural programs adopted during the Great Leap Forward: Space Potato 10x more nutritious than right-deviant potatoes, also enhances fellowship!

Re:my first though: why didn't the burn up on reen

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually... they were sent up and came back in a capsule. Only us mighty capitalistic Americans use a shuttle to traverse space!