COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M AgriLife researchers are preparing to send Texas wine grape seeds to the International Space Station to study how exposure to space affects plant growth and future crop production.
The seeds will travel aboard the Texas A&M/Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT-1), an orbital research platform that will operate approximately 250 miles above Earth.
The project began as a senior engineering capstone proposal by Texas A&M students Arvid Subramanyam and Coby Arnold. They partnered with AgriLife viticulture specialist Justin Scheiner and horticultural sciences researcher Andrej Svyantek to develop the experiment.
Three grape varieties, including the Texas-developed Lomanto cultivar, will orbit Earth for six months before returning to Texas, where researchers will plant and study the seeds.
Scientists hope to determine how cosmic radiation affects seed development and whether the findings can help identify crops suitable for long-term space exploration and habitation.
“Grapes are one of the most important and vital to our memories and histories,” Svyantek said, adding that they could become an important crop for future human missions beyond Earth.
The Lomanto grape was developed by Texas horticulturist Thomas Volney Munson using native grapevines to create a variety resistant to Pierce’s disease, rot and mildew.
Munson’s work also helped save Europe’s wine industry during the late 19th century after he provided disease-resistant rootstock that was used to restore vineyards devastated by grape phylloxera. His contributions earned him France’s Chevalier du Mérite Agricole honor in 1888.
Texas ranks fifth in the United States in vineyard acreage, and researchers said the space mission continues the state’s long history of innovation in grape breeding and agricultural research.