The company that makes Budweiser is now saying it will follow up on that ambitious goal by sending barley seeds, one of the beer’s key ingredients, on a rocket to the International Space Station — the first step in its research on microgravity beer. Twenty barley seeds will be sent to space aboard Space X’s cargo supply mission, which will launch Dec. 4 from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Missouri-based Anheuser-Busch said it plans two experiments on the International Space Station, which orbits at about 220 miles above the Earth. One is to analyze how the seeds react once exposed to a zero-to-low gravity environment; the other is to test if they would germinate.
The seeds would be in orbit for a month before they’re brought back to Earth for analysis.
“Not only will the research offer insights on steps to creating beer on the Red Planet, but it could also provide valuable information on the production of barley and the larger agricultural community here on Earth,” Anheuser-Busch said in a news release.
Budweiser acknowledged that sending beer to the Red Planet would entail several logistical and physical challenges, however. How the ingredients needed to make Budweiser would be cultivated in a place devoid of life remains a big question.
