Over the years, astronauts have taken a lot of things to space including that random bodhi tree leaf and stuff they need to cook meals in space. We’ve managed to send some disconnected motifs of civilised human life in space and now, it looks like we’re sending our favourite plants aboard a SpaceX mission in March. A biotech company is planning to send coffee and marijuana to the International Space Station (ISS). The idea is to test if the plants will be genetically modified or could mutate in zero gravity. Well, we all know what that means, 'Marijuana Coffee' in space!

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Agricultural biotech company Front Range Biosciences has tied up with Space Cells, a tech company and the University of Colorado, Boulder to launch hemp and coffee in a space-bound incubator. Front Range, known for its hemp and coffee varieties wants to send over 480 plant cell cultures into space. The hemp and coffee samples are all set to be launched into space where it will be kept for a month. Once the samples are back on Earth, they will be tested for any changes that might have taken place under stages of microgravity and radiation in space. The experimentation includes monitoring stages of plant growth in zero gravity.

"This is one of the first times anyone is researching the effects of microgravity and spaceflight on hemp and coffee cell cultures. There is science to support the theory that plants in space experience mutations. This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to earth and if there are new commercial applications." - Dr Jonathan Vaught, Front Range CEO (via WestWorld)

One of the biggest questions (apart from are we getting marijuana coffee on Mars?) about this experiment is the legalities of launching hemp in space. While Cannabis sativa is still illegal in the U.S., hemp is a derivative that won’t get you high since it lacks the THC level. It has quite a few medical benefits including relieving pain, anxiety and curing epilepsy in some patients although research on the subject isn’t definitive. Meanwhile, coffee is considered an overall good idea as a wake-up drink so it makes total sense to test if it will survive under different conditions. The study could also help understand plantation and vegetation in regions affected by extreme climate change. It could also lead to discovering methods to grow more resilient crops. Research on hemp isn’t taboo anymore as its production and consumption are legalised. NASA, however, still has to green-light the project.

The coffee and hemp mutation study is sponsored by SpaceCells, a company that works to study the effects of microgravity on Earth’s biology. If you’re looking to get into the science of why coffee and weed go together, here’s another study on the subject:

How weed, coffee, and exercise can put your brain in its most productive place