MISSION CONTROL (Korolyov), April 25, (RIA Novosti) - Female crickets, sprouted beans, and a grapevine have returned to the Earth together with ISS cosmonauts.
All of these had been brought to the station 10 days ago by an Italian, Roberto Vittori, who had successfully carried out the ENEIDE scientific program on board the station.
"During his ten-day flight he studied the specific behavior of insects. These were Italian crickets which were used to test the effects of weightlessness on them," a Mission spokesman told RIA Novosti.
But Vittori did not limit himself to the crickets.
"As part of the VINO experiment, he tested the ability of grapevine grafts from Italy's Tuscany plantations to survive and grow in space flight conditions," the source told the agency.
Besides, Vittori studied the effect of zero gravity and hostile space factors on cell cultures of the rat thyroid.
The Italian's task was to assess the possibility of growing in space fresh and ready-to-use foods which are expected to be obtained from vegetable crop sprouts, specifically the beans.
Vittori also enabled the crew to taste "gourmet food".
"As part of the ENEIDE experiment, food from the Italian province of Latium was tasted with a view to checking the possibility of using it in diets of future ISS crews," the Mission official noted.
