Cosmic crops come to Earth - Astrobotany takes off

UN food and atomic energy agencies are readying to reap the rewards of a ground-breaking ‘astrobotany’ investigation.

With the world's population expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050, there is a clear need for cutting-edge scientific and technological solutions to produce more food, as well as more resilient crops and sustainable farming practises. With more than 60 years of experience in inducing plant mutations that may be advantageous to people and the environment, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is conducting genomic and biological analyses on seeds sent into space.

The experiment aims at developing new crops that can adapt to climate change and help boost global food security.

Two types of seeds are currently in space: sorghum, a member of the millet family and a drought- and heat-resistant grain grown for food in many developing nations, and arabidopsis, a type of cress that has undergone extensive study by plant botanists and geneticists. The seeds were delivered by NASA on November 7, 2022, in an unmanned cargo shuttle. They were subjected to a complex brew of cosmic radiation, microgravity, and blazing heat both inside and outside the International Space Station while in space (ISS).

Upon their return in early April, scientists at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture plan to grow the seeds and screen them for useful traits to better understand space-induced mutations and identify new varieties.

Scientists from the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture intend to grow the seeds upon their return in early April and screen them for beneficial traits to better understand space-induced mutations and discover new varieties.

Read more about the ground breaking venture here