When were finally forced to abandon the planet, at least well be bringing hemp and coffee with us.

Agriculture biotech company Front Range Biosciences will be sending the first plant cultures of the two products into space aboard a SpaceX mission that will leave the planet for the International Space Station in March, according to Vice.

This is the first time anyone is researching the effects of microgravity and spaceflight on hemp and coffee cell cultures, said Jonathan Vaught, co-founder and CEO of Front Range Biosciences. 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.

The company which has partnered on the endeavour with the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a startup called Space Cells plans to send almost 500 cultures into the vast unknown to see if exposure to the hostile environment can have useful applications back home.

Theres no danger of astronauts having a little too much fun with the experiments, hemp contains minuscule amounts of the high-inducing THC found in cannabis, but the plant is extremely versatile for use in the production of products such as paper, clothes and textiles. It also contains CBD, a cannabinoid that has shown the potential to provide relief from stress, anxiety and other medical issues common on and off planet Earth.

They will, if nothing else, provide useful info into how these crops can be made more resilient in hostile environments.

This is just the beginning, according to Louis Stodieck, director of BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In the future, we plan for the crew to harvest and preserve the plants at different points in their grow-cycle, so we can analyze which metabolic pathways are turned on and turned off, he said in a statement. This is a fascinating area of study that has considerable potential.

There is no word yet if Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and person most likely to be high when the rocket takes off, has weighed in on the experiment. Musk was famously chastised after lighting up a joint last year while being interviewed on The Joe Rogan Experience. Its fair to say the experience proved negative as the companys shares started dropping before the smoke cleared the room, prompting an expensive, invasive safety review of the company by NASA. Musk later warned employees of the dangers of using cannabis at work.

Unless, of course, youre in space.

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Did Elon Musk approve this? U.S. company sending cannabis and coffee to space aboard a SpaceX mission - The GrowthOp