Cannabis Cultivation in the Cosmos

by Canna America | Jan 20, 2023 | Cannabis

Could growing ganja galactically be a feasible feat for humanity in the near future? According to the industry leading startup in automated systems, Space Tango, “getting high” could potentially take on a rather literal meaning.

However, don’t go booking a rocket to the moon just yet… Although cosmonauts are contractually prohibited from taking an earthbound moonrock to the actual moon, the ongoing experimental processes performed by Space Tango are providing promising results for a future cannabis grow outside of our home planet.

Could Microgravity be the Leaf Stone to Cannabis’ Evolution?

Like the mystic metamorphosis of a Gloom to a Vileplume, microgravity may be the elusive key to cannabis’ evolutionary transcendence. Earthling cannabis farmers are all too familiar with the various crop decimating stress factors, such as light cycle interruptions and unbalanced levels of humidity, that exist here on Earth. In contrast, the zero gravity conditions within the International Space Station eliminates one force that may potentially pose a terrestrial threat to the plant’s survival.According to the tech and science-based experts at Space Tango, understanding how plants react in an environment where the traditional stress of gravity is removed can provide new insights into how plant adaptations come about, therefore, allowing researchers the advantage of dissecting these changes to discover new characteristics and traits that would otherwise not exist within the confines of our gravity restricted sphere.

Hemp Seedlings Aboard the ISS

In 2019, a bioengineering startup, a CBD manufacturer, and a hemp genetics lifestyle company teamed up to plant seeds of hemp (and hope) aboard the International Space Station. Space Tango, Atalo Holdings, and Anavii Market served as the holy trinity in making astro-based hemp cultivation an extra-terrestrial reality. Having established two micro laboratories on the ISS and utilizing microwave-sized “clean rooms” there to conduct these hemp-focused experiments, Space Tango’s personal leaf stone, microgravity, very well may allow for solutions that simply do not exist Earthside. The star of thesespace-based cannabis trials is the startup’s innovative CubeLabmodules. These modules are mini microgravity chambers that serve as the new home-base for these non-psychoactive seedlings aboard the ISS. So, although the cannabis experiments amongst the cosmos have not involved the part of the plant that actually gets you high, the hope is that utilization of this pioneering platform creates a new market for plants as cannabis continues to grow legally and in popularity.

Benefits of Cosmic Cannabis Cultivation

Despite the chances of being able to smoke alien cookies grown from an alien planet this weekend, the possibility isn’t exactly lightyears away either. Should THC-based plants become federally legal, they too can experience cosmic life within theCubeLab modules. If the absence of gravity is the ticket to cannabis’ morphological alteration and overall preternatural evolution, then the market for cannabis may have a more efficient and new way of growing crops. Co-founder and chairman Kris Kimel of Space Tango explains, “Each time a new type of physics platform has been successfully harnessed, it has led to the exponential growth of new knowledge, benefits to humankind and capital formation. Using microgravity, we envision a future where many of the next breakthroughs in healthcare, plant biology and technology may well occur off the planet Earth.” Again, although the part of the cannabis plant aboard the ISS is not that loud (you can’t hear anything in space), the implication of these trials provides opportunities to deepen our existing knowledge of agriculture and the continuation of space exploration to better our lives here on Earth.

Sources:

Rosales, Danielle. “Space Tango Launches Microgravity Hemp Enterprise.” Space Tango, Space Tango, 29 Oct. 2020, https://spacetango.com/latest/pressreleases/space-tango-launches-microgravity-hemp-enterprise/.