Texas wine grapes launch to space for research mission

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Researchers from Texas A&M AgriLife are sending hundreds of grape seeds to the International Space Station, where the seeds will spend approximately six months exposed to cosmic radiation before returning to Earth for planting and study. The project could produce what researchers believe to be the first wine made from grapes grown from seeds that traveled through space.

The experiment is part of the Texas A&M/Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT) research mission. TAMU-SPIRIT-1 is a first-of-its-kind orbital research platform planned for deployment aboard the International Space Station. It is designed to serve as a "satellite campus in space," supporting a wide range of research and technology projects.

Sending grape seeds to space is a collaborative project involving Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering.

The project began when two senior students, Coby Arnold and Arvind Subramanyam, in the Texas A&M Department of Aerospace Engineering approached Justin Scheiner, AgriLife Extension viticulture specialist and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences. They wanted to develop a senior capstone proposal for an experiment aboard the International Space Station.

With Scheiner's guidance related to grape seed biology, the students designed a carrier that will take grape seeds into orbit, where extended exposure to space radiation could induce genetic mutations. Without the protection and shielding from the carrier, Scheiner said, the radiation exposure would likely leave the seeds nonviable.

After returning to Earth, the seeds will be planted alongside identical control seeds at the AgriLife Research vineyard at Thomas Ranch. Scientists will study differences in plant growth, vine and wine grape performance, and genetics.

One of three varieties going to space is lomanto, a Texas cultivar developed by horticulturist and pioneering viticulturist T.V. Munson in the early 1900s. Scheiner said the mission represents a "full circle" moment for a native Texas vine that once helped save the global wine industry and now may contribute to the future of horticultural science.

"The research will help us understand how different levels of radiation impact the seeds and their varietal geneti