Elon Musk is sending marijuana to astronauts on the ISS – and could create new ‘mutant’ weed
ELON Musk's Space X will be sending cannabis to the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
The space dwellers can expect their delivery to be on a Space X Dragon capsule, which is scheduled to make its next trip in March 2020.
Musk himself may be the man behind Space X but he's not the brains behind these weed plans.
It's actually agri-tech company Front Range Biosciences.
The firm recently announced its intentions to send plant cultures of hemp, the legal cannabis strain with low levels of the THC compound, to space.
Once there, the cultures are intended to remain in an ISS incubator for 30 days.
During the 30 day period, the hemp will be monitored remotely from the University of Colorado, Boulder by BioServe Space Technologies.
The cannabis cultures will then be sent home to Earth.
Once home, Front Range Biosciences will be observing what effect, if any, space radiation and micro-gravity has had on the gene expression of hemp.
Front Range CEO Jonathan Vaught said: "There is science to support the theory that plants in space experience mutations.
"This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to Earth and if there are new commercial applications."
Hemp is a strain of cannabis that is grown for industrial uses.
It can be refined and turned into a number of items including paper, clothing, biodegradable plastics and even animal feed.
It's low concentrations of THC and higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD) mean it can have little to no psychoactive effect.
Musk has been connected to cannabis before.
The eccentric billionaire was famously captured smoking a marijuana roll up on the Los Angeles-based Joe Rogan experience podcast because the drug is legal in the state of California.
He came under fire for this because weed is prohibited for people with government security clearance, which Musk was given in 2015 when SpaceX began launching satellites for the Pentagon.
Shortly after smoking, Musk dressed in a black T-shirt that said "Occupy Mars" told comedian Rogan: “I'm not a regular smoker of weed.”
He added: "I don't find that it is very good for productivity.”
What is the ISS?
Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station...
- The International Space Station, often abbreviated to ISS, is a large space craft that orbits Earth and houses astronauts who go up there to complete scientific missions
- Many countries worked together to build it and they work together to use it
- It is made up of many pieces, which astronauts had to send up individually on rockets and put together from 1998 to 2000
- Ever since the year 2000, people have lived on the ISS
- Nasa uses the station to learn about living and working in space
- It is approximately 250 miles above Earth and orbits around the planet just like a satellite
- Living inside the ISS is said to be like living inside a big house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym, lots of science labs and a big bay window for viewing Earth
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In other space news, water is "common" across alien worlds according to the most extensive study of exoplanet atmospheres yet.
Astronomers recently pictured an interstellar comet coming towards us from deep space.
And, an Apollo astronaut recently admitted that he nearly died trying to do a high jump on the Moon in 1972.
What do you think of Musk's marijuana plans? Let us know in the comments...
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