Chinese astronauts return to Earth with the world’s first rice grown in orbit. This achievement will lead to a better understanding of the effects of weightlessness on rice cultivation and to finding a sustainable food source for long-term space missions.
Astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe spent 183 days in orbit, overseeing the completion of China’s Tiangong space station and conducting a series of scientific experiments, Seed Daily reports.
In one of them, the researchers aimed to study the entire life cycle of rice in space, from the germination of seeds to the mature plant that forms new seeds.
The experiment started at the end of July and 120 days later, the first rice seeds ripened on the space station. The seeds brought back to Earth will be handed over to laboratories in Shanghai for further research.
The astronauts also brought back white-flowered iris seedlings from orbit. These plants are often used by scientists to study mutations. They will now study how weightlessness affects the molecules in the hellebores. The hope is to learn more about how to create new plants that are more adaptable to life in space.
According to Professor Zheng Huiqiong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, space stations have previously succeeded in growing oilseed rape, beans and wheat.
Some of the differences between space-grown rice and conventional rice were immediately apparent: the plants started flowering a little earlier and their stems grew at a distance from each other, rather than being compressed like on Earth.