DTN 119: Space Weed

“Sometimes, innovation requires a government willing to make bold investments and a commercial industry ready to support or match those efforts. Often, consumers are not aware of research innovations or what may be coming next. The government, on the other hand, is often aware of potential scientific breakthroughs but may not know how to commercialize them.”

“On Monday, June 23, shortly after 9 pm UTC, hundreds of seeds, fungi, algae, and human DNA samples, many of which have never been exposed to space before, will make their maiden voyage aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the mission is hoping to be the first to send plant tissues and seeds into a polar low Earth orbit and back, to allow scientists to study how biological systems are affected by the harsh levels of radiation found high above Earth’s poles. The information they glean, researchers hope, could one day help spacefarers grow crops on other planets.”