Why an Abu Dhabi startup wants to send quinoa seeds into space

London
CNN
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As the climate crisis makes it harder to grow many food crops, some scientists and entrepreneurs are looking for solutions beyond Earth.

Abu Dhabi-based start-up StarLab Oasis, a spin-off of Texas company Nanoracks, hopes to grow seeds in outer space to develop plant varieties that can survive on a less hospitable Earth. In 2023, StarLab Oasis expects to launch its first seed into orbit.

From soybeans to quinoa, Seeds grow differently in space than they do on land.Without gravity, plants indistinguishable growth patternThey are also exposed to cosmic radiation. This mutates the seeds, resulting in new, stronger or more productive varieties of plants — such as drought-resistant crops that can grow in saline conditions.

Alan Herbert, co-founder of StarLab Oasis, told CNN Business that sending seeds into space will help “sustainability, climate change and food security on Earth.” “Space is a place with limited resources, limited energy, limited space. It’s the perfect place to conduct research, and the same technology can be brought back directly to Earth.”

plants are affected Connor Kiselchuk, a plant scientist at StarLab Oasis, explained that since the 1920s, mutation breeding—exposing a species to chemicals or radiation— in the 1960s it starts to be applied in outer space.

China has sent seeds into orbit since the 1980s, leading its farmers to use new varieties of crops. 2022, International Atomic Energy Agency and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations For the first time, seeds have been launched into space with the aim of developing crops that can withstand climate change.

Herbert said StarLab Oasis will be one of the first to commercialize the process. It plans to work with companies, space agencies, universities and nonprofits to send seeds into space for research or commercial purposes. He added that it was up to customers to decide whether they would breed and sell commercially.

Kiselchuk explained that one nonprofit it is currently working with is the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, which is seeking to increase the salt and drought tolerance of crops such as quinoa.

First, StarLab Oasis will send seeds to the International Space Station (ISS) for astronauts to grow, but the long-term goal is to send them to a commercial space station called Starlab, which will In operation in 2027. When they return to Earth, they will be germinated by customers or in the StarLab Oasis laboratory, where they will be tested to determine how they will perform in specific environments, such as drought or extreme heat.

Founded in 2021, StarLab Oasis currently has five employees and will expand next year. It is backed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a $41 million program to boost food production in arid environments.This could benefit the UAE, currently Import up to 90% of food.

Abdulla Abdul Aziz AlShamsi, Acting Director General of ADIO, said: “(StarLab Oasis) is an ambitious and exciting project that will provide The scientific potential of space to develop agricultural technologies for a world with limited resources.”

The startup’s ambitions don’t stop there.

It wants to develop food production in space, designing off-the-ground systems that can produce food on longer-duration space missions to the moon or Mars.

Plants can also provide other benefits, Kiselchuk said, such as “generating oxygen, filtering some of the wastewater stream, and psychological benefits for the crew who are about to leave home.”