To combat climate change, Abu Dhabi startup StarLab Oasis wants to plant seeds in outer space in order to develop plant species that can survive on unsuitable land.
Soybeans and quinoa grow differently in space. Without Earth’s gravity, plants struggle to discern their growth path and are exposed to cosmic radiation, reports a local Arabic daily.
Seeds can mutate in this way to produce new, more tolerant and productive plants, such as drought-tolerant crops that can grow in saline conditions.
Allen Herbert, co-founder of StarLab Oasis, told CNN Arabia that sending seeds into space will contribute to sustainability, climate change, and food security on Earth. It is the perfect place to do research, and the same technology can be brought to Earth.”
According to StarLab Oasis botanist Connor Kisselchuk, plants have been subjected to "mutational breeding" since the 1920s on Earth, and it started to be practiced in outer space in the 1960s.
Farmers in China have used new varieties of crops as a result of sending seeds into space since the 1980s.
For the first time, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations sent seeds into space in 2022 to develop climate-smart crops.
Herbert said StarLab Oasis would be among the first to commercialize this process. The company plans to work with other companies, space agencies, universities, and nonprofit organizations to send seeds into space for either research or commercial purposes. It is up to the customers to choose whether to propagate the plants for the purpose of trade and sale.
Kisselchuk said that one of the non-profit organizations that the company is currently working with is the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai, which aims to increase the tolerance of crops like quinoa to salt and drought.
The seeds will initially be sent to the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts will plant them, but the long-term goal is to send them to a commercial space station called Starlab, which will be operational in 2027.
Upon returning to Earth, the seeds will either be grown by a customer or tested in a StarLab Oasis lab to see how they perform under drought and extreme heat conditions. StarLab Oasis, which was founded in 2021, currently has five employees and is set to expand next year.
An Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) program to increase food production in arid environments supports the company with $41 million. The country may benefit from the project, as it currently imports up to 90 percent of its food.
"StarLab Oasis" is an ambitious and exciting project, according to Abdullah Abdulaziz Al Shamsi, Acting Director General of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. It will provide access to the scientific potential of space for developing agricultural technologies in a world of limited resources."