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In 2019, Space Cargo Unlimited sent a case of Bordeaux red wine to the International Space Station – not for astronauts to tip over (this is usually against the regulations), but to figure out: what’s happening it to fermented products when they have been in microgravity for so long?
This month, the crate of wine came back down to Earth via a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, and researchers will break the bottles next month to, uh, investigate.
This includes not only drinking it, but also understanding how alcohol has changed, which the company hopes could offer lessons for agricultural resilience here as climate change slowly terraforms our planet.
As the Decanter bloggers note …
The properties of the wines and vines will also be compared to control samples left on earth.
“We’re going to look at everything that has changed,” Gaume said.
“We will be performing a full genome sequencing of the plants, to provide a clear view of any DNA changes that may have occurred while on the ISS.
A chemical analysis of the wines is planned, as well as a private tasting planned for the beginning of March.
The identity of Bordeaux red wines has not yet been revealed, but they come from a single producer and a single vintage.
Gaume described the absence of gravity, or microgravity, as “ultimate stress”. He said researchers involved in the project wanted to know more about how vine canes adapted or evolved in a relatively short time to withstand stressful conditions.
This, he said, could have implications for understanding how vineyards – and agriculture in general – might adapt to stressors linked to climate change.
As CNN adds:
Woody plants such as vines are essential for feeding the human population, researchers say, but they have never been studied in space. “It could be a game-changer by unlocking the agriculture of tomorrow,” said Michael Lebert, Scientific Director of SCU.
(Photo under CC-2.0 license of Rando Bordeaux wine courtesy of filtran’s Flickr feed)
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