Mystery of the Missing ISS Tomato Finally Solved

"A tomato lost for eight months on the orbiting lab has been located, " reports Gizmodo, "absolving astronaut Frank Rubio of playful allegations that he ate it." NASA's Veg-05 experiment, a project focusing on growing fruits and vegetables in space, experienced an unusual turn of events when a Red Robin dwarf tomato vanished shortly after being harvested in March. This tomato, part of a study to explore the feasibility of continuous fresh-food production in space, was finally found, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli revealed during a livestream on December 6...

The Veg-05 project expanded the scope of in-space farming to include dwarf tomatoes, exploring how lighting and fertilizer variations influence fruit growth, safety, and nutritional value (and yes, tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables)... Following the harvest in March, each astronaut received a tomato sample stored in a Ziploc bag. However, concerns about potential fungal contamination led NASA to instruct the astronauts not to consume the fruit, as Space.com reported.

News of the missing tomato first emerged on September 13, during an event commemorating Rubio's one-year stay in orbit. Rubio, who had an extended mission on the ISS due to a malfunctioning Russian Soyuz spacecraft, lamented the loss of his tomato share, which had floated away before he could take a bite. Rubio, who spent a record 371 days in space, mused about the missing tomato, saying: "I spent so many hours looking for that thing. I'm sure the desiccated tomato will show up at some point and vindicate me, years in the future."
In the livestream Moghbeli "did not specify where on the 356-foot space station the one-inch-wide red dwarf tomato was located," notes the Guardian, "or in what condition." The Rubio tomato turned out to be one of only 12 red dwarves successfully germinated and grown to ripeness in space during the Veg-05 project, compared with more than 100 in a parallel experiment conducted on Earth, according to NASA.
Thanks to Slashdot reader christoban for sharing the news.

Of course it's a fruit

[NomDeAlias]

Why does anyone think differently? Is it because they are used so often in salads?

Re:Of course it's a fruit

[Kernel Kurtz]

I heard it is a non-starchy grain.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

A squash is also a fruit.

Re:

[christoban]

So is celery, the only negative calorie food out there.

Mainly because it passes through so fast!

Re:

[LifesABeach]

ah ha.
missing dwarf tomato.
has to be space fairies.
it is the only thing that makes sense

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

No, it's specifically a missing red dwarf. It'll turn up in three million years with a hologram and something that evolved from the ship's cat for crew.

Re:

[drainbramage]

Warning sign on a box of squash: Squash, don't squish!

Re:Of course it's a fruit

[korgitser]

This is slasdot, so... Once you move out of your mothers basement and have to buy your own groceries, you will discover that tomatoes are sold in the vegetable section...

Re:Of course it's a fruit

[93 Escort Wagon]

Terms like "fruit" and "berry" are problematic in these sorts of discussions because people get intentionally sloppy verbally, switching between botanical and non-botanical definitions, while pretending they've somehow made a point. Like when you say a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable - "vegetable" isn't a botanical term at all, while you are using "fruit" in the strict botanical sense.

Since you enjoy pointing out that a tomato is a fruit, perhaps you should also mention it's a berry - as are cucumbers, bananas, and grapes! Coffee is also a berry - but raspberries, strawberries, and mulberries are not berries! We should start picketing the produce section!

Have some fun with that...

Re:

[techno-vampire]

Not only that, neither caraway seeds nor fennel seeds are really seeds; they're both very small fruits, with tiny seeds inside.

Re:

[techno-vampire]

Both caraway [wikipedia.org]and fennel [wikipedia.org] "seeds" are really very small fruits, you ignorant asshole. Just a moment's time checking Wikipedia would have kept your foot out of your mouth, but you couldn't be bothered, could you?

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

And what's the deal with fenugreek? It's not Greek - it's from India, for Pete's sake!

Re:

[chas.williams]

Raspberries, strawberries, and mulberries are accessory fruits. Everyone knows that. I have repeatedly asked my local grocer to correct the signs in the supermarket, but he was busy putting 's on the end of everything.

Re:

[Creepy]

By the culinary definition, fruits are also spices. They could market pureed tomatoes as "spice sauce" and be culinarily correct. I VERY SPECIFICALLY used that as my example, because another plant in the same family (solanaceae, more commonly known as nightshade) often are sold as spicy hot sauces - hot pepper sauces. The seeds of fruits are also classified as spices, but the flowers themselves are herbs, as are leaves.

Incidentally, tobacco is also in the nightshade family and the herb (leaf) is smoked.

In a

Re:

[NomDeAlias]

It's not problematic at all. There are simple common English dictionary definitions that suffice.

Re:

[NomDeAlias]

When you move out you'll find out out its called the produce section and includes both fruits and vegetables.

Re:

[pjt33]

The last tomatoes I bought were right next to the guacamole. Is avocado also a vegetable?

Re:

[Excelcia]

OF course it's a fruit ... Why does anyone think differently? Is it because they are used so often in salads?

Don't get started. I grow tired of the self-righteous and pretentious constantly tossing that out. If you're serious it's not useful, and it's not even funny in jest any more.

There are so many foods which are botanically fruits but used as vegetables that the botanical distinction is meaningless except to a botanist. In food, it's a fruit if it's used as a fruit. It's a vegetable if it's used as a vegetable. Interestingly (thank God) that is the way they are classified under the law too. In most juris

Re:

[sjames]

Don't get started. I grow tired of the self-righteous and pretentious constantly tossing that out. If you're serious it's not useful, and it's not even funny in jest any more.

So that's a no on the tossed salad?

Re:

[NomDeAlias]

The only reason it irks you when people rightfully point out tomatoes are fruits is because you're a vegetable.

Re:

[Excelcia]

But I identify as a drupe.

Re:

[Gabest]

Their pronounes are vegetables. You tomatophobe.

Re:

[TWX]

Knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is not using it a fruit-salad.

Re:

[spudnic]

Because the US Federal Government declared that tomatoes were vegetables to prop up the growers by allowing school lunch programs to spend their vegetable allowance on them.

Re:

[NomDeAlias]

Wow, someone who actually answered the question. Thanks. I didn't know it stemmed from the US gov legislating a falsehood.

Dwarf Tomato?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Dwarf refers to the size of the plant itself - not the fruit. Small-fruited tomatoes are typically known as cherry, grape, or currant tomatoes (depending on the relative size and shape).

Coverup

[bookwormT3]

Not explaining where the tomato was found huh.. Obviously there's a coverup. How to say aliens were involved without saying aliens were involved.

(Or is this a coverup for a space drive really being a teleportation device?)

Thank god that's resolved

[Opportunist]

I really didn't sleep well anymore ever since it went missing.

Re:

[dohzer]

Without knowing where they found it or what condition it was in, I doubt I'll get any sleep tonight. I need closure!

How to get crazy in space.

[stooo]

Now imagine you are stuck in a big aluminium cylinder in space for 371 days, and you got a sweet locked in a ziploc bag that you're told you are not allowed to eat.
It drives you crazy :)

Re:

[Opportunist]

Frankly? Probably not. First, I'm not that big into tomatoes. But even if I were, food is what I need to keep my body functioning, it's not something terribly exciting to me.

Re:

[Motleypuss]

Now, instead of worrying myself awake over the tomato's loss, I can worry myself awake about what state its in and whether it's still edible. Jolly good!

So they finaly went through the crap bin eh?

[4wdloop]

...just to find the tomato skin and seeds there a leading evidence... ;-)

Seriously though, they did not described be state the tomato is in?

Re:So they finaly went through the crap bin eh?

[quonset]

...just to find the tomato skin and seeds there a leading evidence... ;-)

Seriously though, they did not described be state the tomato is in?

Which is why I never submitted the story. After reading it, like so many others, it was devoid of useful information. Technically the story does answer the who, what, where, why, and when questions, but somehow still doesn't tell you anything about the tomato, where it was found, or its condition.

What ever became of the hole in the ISS capsule?

[Mirnotoriety]

The mystery of the ISS hole just got even weirder The hole came from the inside. [popsci.com]

Re:

[christoban]

The Russians probably did it just so Putin could sabotage U.S. / Russian relations.

Puberty Love

[bill_mcgonigle]

Now we know how the attack started!

PS Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit - wisdom is knowing that it doesn't belong in a fruit salad.

'Akshually' is typically a warning that wisdom just went out the window and here comes a useful idiot.

Just follow ...

[PPH]

... the fruit flies.

My first accepted article

[christoban]

This is the first article I've submitted to be accepted, and all the comments are about the fruit/vegetable distinction.

And only one guy noticed that they never actually say in the article or the podcast where the fruit was found! Maybe the guy actually did eat it!

Damn

[divide overflow]

I was rooting for that tomato to escape.
So sad.

Good experiment

[Gabest]

If it was lost in March, now they could definitely notice whether it had any fungal growing on it.

Finding it the hard way

[Tablizer]

"Darn, where's that tomato. Let's decelerate a bit so we can look for it.....*SPLAT* Shit! Found it! On face, git me a rag."

Chatbot fun

[CptJeanLuc]

I felt ChatGPT did a decent job with this one.

Me: "Write an original joke about two tomatoes that get misplaced on the international space station. The punchline should somehow relate to weightlessness"

ChatGPT: "Why did the two tomatoes feel lost on the International Space Station? Because in weightlessness, they couldn't ketchup with anything!"

Clickbait

[Askmum]

So I read the whole article to find out that yes the mystery is solved, but for us mortals we are not allowed to know the resolution of the mystery. That is clickbait and makes the article unnecessary.

So,theyve turned the ISS into a science experiment

[newbie_fantod]

Expect a paper on biological decomposition in zero-g soon.