Weed and coffee are finally going to space

“SpaceX is about to send hemp to the ISS” is maybe the most perfectly 2019 sentence, and thankfully, it’s true.

Specifically, an upcoming research project will use a March 2020 SpaceX flight to send plant cultures of hemp and coffee to the International Space Station for studying. This is all thanks to a collaboration between Front Range Biosciences, SpaceCells USA, and BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado. 

Front Range will supply the plants, SpaceCells the management and funding, and BioServe the hardware to take care of the plants. BioServe will also monitor the hemp and coffee remotely from Earth to monitor whether radiation and lack of gravity mutate the plants in any way. After 30 days, the plants will come back home for further examination.

According to a statement from Dr. Jonathan Vaught, CEO of Front Range, this is the first time anyone has tested the effects of space travel on these specific plants. It could provide valuable insight into how the plants respond to new environments, which might be useful in space and on Earth, considering the threat of climate change.

There’s obviously comedic value in the idea of sending weed to space for scientific research, but to be clear, that’s not exactly what’s happening. The project is sending a hemp tissue culture to the ISS, so it’s pretty unlikely that anyone would use it to get high. Industrialized hemp has been legal in the United States since 2018, but the legal variety isn’t strong enough to get you high.

Instead, it’s used for everything from food to textiles. If you want to get stoned in space, you’ll have to find another way. Good luck.