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Abu Dhabi-based start-up StarLab Oasis, a spin-off from Texan company Nanoracks, wants to grow seeds in outer space in order to establish plant ranges that can make it through on a less hospitable Earth.
In 2023, StarLab Sanctuary anticipates to send its very first seeds into orbit.
From soybeans to quinoa, seeds grow differently in space than on land. Without Earth’s gravitational pull, plants have a hard time to identify which method to grow, and they are also exposed to cosmic radiation.
This can make seeds alter, which can lead to brand-new, more robust or productive plant ranges like drought-resistant crops that can grow in saline conditions.
Sending seeds to orbit will help “sustainability, climate modification, and food security in the world,” StarLab Oasis’ co-founder Allen Herbert.
” Space is a location where you have limited resources, restricted energy, minimal space. It’s the perfect location to do research which same technology can be brought back to Earth.”
Plants have actually gone through mutation breeding exposing a species to chemicals or radiation in the world since the 1920s, explains StarLab Sanctuary’ plant scientist Connor Kiselchuk, and in the 1960s it started to be applied in deep space.
China has sent out seeds into orbit since the 1980s, resulting in new varieties of crops being used by its farmers.
In 2022, the International Atomic Energy Firm and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Company launched seeds into orbit for the very first time, with the objective of developing crops to stand up to climate change.
Herbert says StarLab Sanctuary will be among the very first to advertise the process. It plans to deal with business, area agencies, universities and non-profits, to send out seeds to space either for research or industrial functions.
It depends on the clients to choose whether they will commercially reproduce and offer them, he includes.
One non-profit it is currently working with is the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Farming, which is aiming to increase the saline and drought tolerance of crops such as quinoa, explains Kiselchuk.
