IIST, KAU launching post-flight research on crop seeds which can be again from International Space Station

The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) have begun post-flight research on the crop seeds that have been despatched to the International Space Station (ISS) on the Axiom-4 mission.

After Group Capt. Shubhanshu Shukla and the opposite astronauts returned to earth after the 18-day mission, the IIST had taken possession of the seeds in the direction of July-end.

Using a portion of the seeds, IIST’s Space Biology Lab, which is main the ‘Crop Seeds on ISS’ mission, has launched germination research below lab situations. But many of the 4000-plus seeds have been transferred to the KAU’s College of Agriculture at Vellayani right here for area research, which is a collaborative initiative between the 2 establishments. The complete analysis mission is predicted to take two-and-a-half to a few years to finish, IIST sources stated.

Seeds of Jyothi and Uma rice varieties, Kanakamani (horse gram), Vellayani Vijay (tomato), Thilakathara (sesame) and Soorya (brinjal/eggplant) have been despatched to ISS on the Axiom-4 mission which lifted off on June 25 on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket.

The biology payload consisted of dry seeds that have been packed and uncovered to microgravity situations on the ISS and returned to earth. The ‘Crop Seeds on ISS’ mission was achieved by way of multi-level agreements amongst ISRO and the European Space Agency, ISRO’s Human Spaceflight Centre (HSFC) and IIST and IIST and KAU.