Every few months, the International Space Station gets a rocket full of supplies from the surface containing everything from food to replacement parts to complex scientific experiments. Last week, a rocket sent one of these payloads to the ISS as usual, although it contained something a little different: a bunch of barley seeds, which the astronauts will grow in space as a precursor to brewing truly out-of-this-world beer.
Back in March, Budweiser made a pledge to become the first beer on Mars, and as the first step to achieving that goal the company is sending barley seeds into space. Once there, the ISS astronauts will attempt to grow them and study how the plants react to the zero-gravity environment.
This is part of a collaboration between Budweiser and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the U.S. National Laboratory aboard the ISS. As part of this collaboration, the ISS astronauts will perform two experiments with the barley seeds: The first will be a general study to see how well barley grows in space, while the second focuses on seed germination to determine if barley grows as quickly in space as it does on Earth.
Once these experiments are completed, the barley plants will be shipped back down to Earth, where they will be analyzed by scientists on the ground. With any luck, those scientists will learn not only how to grow plants like barley in space, but also how to grow it better here on Earth.
We hope NASA’s next rocket has some hops.
Source: Food & Wine and Budweiser
