The country that invented wine wants to be the first to plant grapes on Mars

The first human settlers on Mars will have to give up many comforts of life on Earth, but at least one habit they can keep: drinking a glbad of wine.

This will be the mission of Project IX. This will involve the identification of grape varieties that will survive the high radiation, temperature shifts and planting of grapes on Mars .

The research aims to develop all the infrastructure needed to grow grapes on Mars by 2024 – the year in which Space X is planning to launch its first settlement mission on the planet.

This project is developed by Georgia, a country called "viticulturist" and has a wine tradition dating back to 6000 BC. J.-C. . According to Nikoloz Doborjginidze, founder of the Georgia Space Research Agency, the country is forced to be the first to import wine on Mars.

Studies will begin later this year with the installation of a "vertical greenhouse" in a hotel in Tbilisi, the country's capital. In this greenhouse, containers of earth and grape seeds, strawberries and rockets will be placed in a hydroponic system with lights and minimal human interference, simulating the likely conditions that crops would face on March.

At the same time, wine experts from across the country will be studying the best varieties to survive on this inhospitable planet.

Over the next few years, researchers from the University of Technology and Business of Tbilisi will create in the laboratory a . ] environment that simulates Martian conditions exposing plants to subzero temperatures, high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and an atmospheric pressure equivalent to that of Mars.

These experiments are expected to generate the first fruits only in 2022, scientists already bet that the grapes were used to create the white wine will be those that will best adapt to the conditions of the planet red, because they have a reinforced shell that makes them resistant to viruses. It is thought that the bark can reflect radiation and make it a strong candidate to be one of the first cultures of Mars.

Despite innovation, studies in Georgia are not the first to develop a agricultural crop off the ground . Astronauts of the ISS (International Space Station) are already growing their own salad in microgravity environments. Chang & # 39; e 4, recently sent to the Moon by China, also planted cotton on our natural satellite.

This initiative is not the first to involve alcohol. Budweiser has already sent barley seeds into space to become the "first beer of Mars".

The Ardmore Scotch whiskey distillery sent a grid of the brand's best whiskey to the ISS in 2011 to test the effects of microgravity in the aging of beverages. During the three years that he spent at the station, whiskey ceased to be one of the tastiest in the world to have a burnt rubber aroma .