Updated on May 4th, 2019: Hemp seeds have officially left the planet Earth!
Anavii Market has teamed up with Space Tango and Atalo Holdings to launch hemp seeds into space! This is the first step in an ongoing research program to study hemp in a microgravity environment.
The first batch of hemp seeds went up on the SpaceX17 mission early Saturday morning at 2:48 a.m. EDT on May 4th.
The seeds are expected to dock on the International Space Station on Monday where the station's robotic arm will capture Falcon 9's Dragon Capsule. The Capsule contains "a smorgasbord of science experiments, crew supplies, and hardware," including nanoparticles, an algae-powered bioreactor, tissue organs, and HEMP.
The seeds will stay aboard the ship locked in a Space Tango Cube until they return to Earth in about a month. This launch is Phase I of multiple hemp experiments that will be conducted as part of this research. Phase I will assess the stability of the seeds when susceptible to microgravity conditions.
For further video footage visit, Space.com
Why Launch Hemp Into Space?
All living things have evolved on this planet under the force of gravity. What would happen if that pressure was removed? Previous research has shown that it can completely scramble the biological and physical processes of plants, so we’re curious to see what happens to hemp!
We’re particularly excited to see what happens to the chemical compounds found within the hemp plant, called cannabinoids. There are over 120 of them and they help balance our body’s functions like stress, mood, and sleep, as well as our overall health and wellness. With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp, research on these compounds and their effects can now reach new frontiers - including space!
“The opportunities for the hemp plant are already quite vast, but if we can make a new discovery, a new improvement, a new cannabinoid, that could unlock a world of change.”Annie Rouse, co-founder of Anavii Market
How Does Microgravity Impact Hemp in Space?
Many of us have seen movies depicting astronauts or explorers that travel into space for weeks, months, and even years on end. For the sake of movie plots, these characters show no physical changes during their time in low gravity. However, it is well known that astronauts lose muscle mass while in space.
This is because of microgravity, the very weak gravity that is created inside an orbiting body like a spacecraft. Tasks that require muscles to work while on Earth, require very little effort while in space. Because there is no gravitational force for muscles to work against, astronauts' muscles begin to weaken from lack of use.
Unlike humans and other mammals, what if more simple, organisms benefited from low gravity environments?
Kris Kimmel of Space Tango further explains,“Understanding how plants react in an environment where the traditional stress of gravity and other factors are altered or removed can provide new insights into how adaptations come about and how researchers might take advantage of such changes for the discovery of new characteristics, traits, biomedical and health applications and efficacy.”
For this mission, we'll be sending hemp seeds into space and will study them upon their return. While we don't yet know how microgravity will impact hemp, we're excited to find out!
Who is Space Tango?
Space Tango is a space engineering company based in Lexington, KY that works with the International Space Lab (ISS) to build research systems in small containers called CubeLabs. There are currently multiple cubelabs installed and functioning on the ISS, which are creating microgravity environments for various research projects. We’re excited to add hemp to the mix!
Space Tango’s flagship research missions include studying the germination and growth of barley, the function and antibiotic resistance of E. coli, and the effects of exposure to microgravity in botanical seeds.
Recently, Space Tango sent periwinkle and valeriana seeds to the ISS to experience microgravity. They were returned to earth and then planted. After the plants matured, they were then compared to their mature counterparts, which seeds were not sent to space.
The results? See for yourself below:
Anavii Market Will See You in Space!
With the 2018 Farm Bill passing, and all hemp and hemp-derived substances now declared federally legal, the floodgates have been opened. Even more so, research can begin at a much more rapid pace. Space Tango and Anavii Market, alongside Atalo Holdings, are leading the charge, hoping to discover unlearned mysteries by taking hemp seeds into space, exposing them to microgravity, and then returning them to earth to be planted and studied.
The results of these missions are still undetermined, however, we believe that the best days are ahead and there is no win-lose paradigm. We win… or we learn.
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Anavii’s hemp seed batch went up on the SpaceX17 mission early Saturday morning at 2:48 a.m. EDT on Saturday, May 4th – updates to come!
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