ISS astronauts to study how beer grows under zero gravity

New Delhi : Astronauts at International Space Station (ISS) have received a bunch of barley seeds to study how beer grows under the zero gravity condition. Literally! Making an 'out of this world' beer.

Every few months, food supply is sent in space for the astronauts via rockets, this time barley seeds were the added supply sent via SpaceX's Dragon rocket.

Earlier in March this year, Budweiser had pledged to become the first beer made on Mars. The company sending barley seed in the space is the first step towards the desired achievement. 

While attempting to grow beer in space, astronauts will focus their study on two things - the first will be a general study to see how well barley grows in space, while the second focuses on seed germination to determine if barley grows as quickly in space as it does on Earth.

Once these experiments are completed, the barley plants will be shipped back down to Earth, where they will be analyzed by scientists on the ground. With any luck, those scientists will learn not only how to grow plants like barley in space, but also how to grow it better here on Earth.

The whole study is a part of collaboration between Budweiser and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the U.S. National Laboratory aboard the ISS.