Close Menu
    Scientists Are Sending Cannabis Seeds to Space
    Space

    Scientists Are Sending Cannabis Seeds to Space

    Share.
    View 23 Comments

    23 Comments

    1. wiredmagazine on

      On Monday, June 23, shortly after 9 pm UTC, hundreds of seeds, fungi, algae, and human DNA samples, many of which have never been exposed to space before, will make their maiden voyage aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

      [Launching](https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/launch/falcon-9-block-5-transporter-14-dedicated-sso-rideshare/) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the mission is hoping to be the first to send plant tissues and seeds into a polar low Earth orbit and back, to allow scientists to study how biological systems are affected by the harsh levels of radiation found high above the Earth’s poles. The information they glean, researchers hope, could one day help spacefarers grow crops on other planets.

      The samples will travel in a small biological incubator called MayaSat-1, developed by the [Genoplant Research Institute](https://genoplant.com/mayasat-1/), a Slovenian aerospace company specializing in space-based biological research. At an altitude above 500 km, the incubator, housed inside a larger capsule, will cross zones near the North and South poles where concentrations of charged particles emitted by the sun are high due to the Earth’s magnetic field. When it passes through these regions, it will be exposed to up to 100 times more radiation than objects orbiting at similar altitudes around the equator, like the International Space Station (ISS). The capsule will orbit Earth three times, in a mission lasting around three hours, before re-entering the atmosphere and splash-landing in the Pacific Ocean. If all goes to plan, the incubator will be collected from a location around nine hours off the coast of Hawaii and shipped back to Europe, where the real exploration will begin.

      Read more: [https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-sending-cannabis-seeds-space-weed/](https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-sending-cannabis-seeds-space-weed/)

    2. b_a_t_m_4_n on

      That’s really high….

      that was the joke but I have to put more stuff here because reddit sucks.

    3. biggesthumb on

      After the hemp bill passes, americans will need to go to space to grow the plant

    4. danecookofmods on

      So they’re testing the effects of radiation on the growth of the plant.

      I really hope the strain they chose was Bruce Banner. They could call it Cosmic Hulk Kush.

    5. blyzo on

      Good. I’m definitely not signing up to colonise Mars until we can grow weed there.

    9. Mustakraken on

      But … Once they’ve reached orbit the astronauts are *already* high, they don’t need the cannabis too?

    12. atinyasianwoman on

      That space-based, hydroponic chronic will get you supadupahigh…like send you to the moon!

    17. FalseVaccum on

      We won’t have to worry about an alien invasion. They’ll be too lazy and full from cosmic dominos pizza to do anything.

    18. syntaxbad on

      Headline this time next year:

      “Snoop Dogg pays record $20 Million at auction for ‘Space Weed’ in world’s first.”

    20. satori0320 on

      Hey kid, are you going my way?
      Hop in, we’ll have ourselves a field day.

      We’ll find us some spacegrass,

      Lay low, watch the universe expand.

      Skyway, permanent Saturday.
      Oh, by the way, Saturn is my rotary.

      Hop in, it’ll be eternity
      Till we make it to M83.

    21. CFCYYZ on

      SpaceX weed is the best around
      As it is not sold by the pound.
      Orbital gummies! Vacuum hash!
      It’s all weightless so you don’t need cash.

    22. kspanier on

      Already did that last year myself. On a suborbital rocket though, but I have thus probably created the first 10 seeds of actual space weed in the world.

    23. Nomaddad55 on

      Coincidently Willie Nelson will be sending his ashes there as well when he passes on.