High times at the ISS: Agri-tech company to send cannabis, coffee to space to study microgravity's effects

The next SpaceX mission, in 2020, comes loaded with ‘high’ expectations. This will be the twentieth launch for Elon Musk’s aerospace company and it will be carrying what might be his favourite plant. If we were not painfully obvious, the next SpaceX mission will be carrying cannabis to the ISS, for the astronauts. Not to smoke up, but to study it. An agri-tech company, Front Range Biosciences, has come up with an interesting idea — to study the effects of microgravity on plants and they have chosen to send coffee, which some might say is a human necessity, and cannabis. via GIPHY Front Range Biosciences has partnered with tech startup Space Cells and BioServe, a research institute in the University of Colorado, Boulder, to send the tissue cultures to space. The cultures will be monitored for 30 days by the live-in astronauts. Space Cells is funding this study and BioServe will provide the hardware needed to make this experiment work and collaborate with the ISS astronauts to ensure it runs smoothly.

The experiment

480 plant cell cultures will be sent up to the ISS and will be kept in temperature-regulated incubators for 30 days. Their progress will be monitored by BioServe at the university, on Earth. After a month in space, the cultures will be returned back and the agri-tech company will analyse it. The purpose of this little space jaunt is to check how microgravity affects plants and if the exposure of space radiation can affect their genes. [caption id=“attachment_7777811” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Cannabis culture will be sent to the ISS.[/caption] “This is one of the first times anyone is researching the effects of microgravity and spaceflight on hemp and coffee cell cultures,” said Dr Jonathan Vaught, co-founder and CEO of Front Range Biosciences in a press release. “There is science to support the theory that plants in space experience mutations. This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to Earth and if there are new commercial applications.”

The grand scheme

This experiment, the company hopes, will help, “scientists to better understand how plants manage the stress of space travel and set the stage for a whole new area of research for the company and the industry,” according to a press release. They also hope this space test can help them figure out how plants can grow in new environments and help breed crops that will grow in locations affected by climate change.