Biotec Launches plan to grow rice in space

It remains a fantasy: plants being cultivated in outer space. However, this has not discouraged a research team at the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology from conducting research to prove that growing rice in outer space is not a mission impossible.

As part of a project that encourages Thai researchers to conduct scientific experiments in space, the National Science and Technology Development Agency is collaborating with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to conduct experiments that are part of Thai research projects in Kibo, Japan's experimental space module.

Kibo, which will be launched into space early next year, will serve as an experimental-module part of the International Space Station, a permanent research laboratory that is in orbit 400 kilometres above the Earth.

Equipped with experimental facilities, Kibo has been designed to facilitate various experiments using space-specific conditions, such as microgravity, high-vacuum environments, space radiation and infinite solar energy.

Sawat Tantiphanwadi, a project leader in the Thai-Japanese collaboration programme, said Thailand could conduct scientific research in a space environment in Kibo's lab through this relationship.

Presently, the agency is searching for suitable research projects that can be conducted inside Kibo, and growing rice in space is one of them under consideration.

Known as in vitro rice flowering in a controlled environment, the project will involve growing rice in an environment similar to space. The research team hopes the project will help develop an innovative method of cultivating food in space.

Sawat said the research team was trying to develop in vitro plants and scrutinise the growth of plants grown using a tissue culture in a bottle under controlled conditions.

"Moving away from growing rice in normal open-air environments, the research team must study how to grow rice in closed environments, such as a bottle. They will have to simulate the proper environment by controlling light, temperature and formulating a nutrient formula for the in vitro plants, so that they can grow and be productive in a space environment," Sawat said.

Sawat also expects the results of the study to come out in the next six months.

If the team succeeds in growing in vitro rice, the agency will support them in further developing an experimental kit that can be used in outer space, he said.

The team is expected to conduct experiments in Kibo's lab within the next two years.

Each lot of in vitro rice will take about three months to cultivate.

During the experiment conducted in space, Japanese astronauts, already on standby on Kibo, will help the agency conduct the experiments, and the results will be communicated to Thai researchers on a continuous basis.

Sawat said the in vitro rice flowering project would benefit biotechnology researchers in developing ways to grow plants in space and studying plant mutation.

Since plants grown in outer space under zero-gravity conditions can undergo mutation, researchers could get a chance to study changes in the plant at the genetic level.

"Since we now know next to nothing about growing rice in space and what changes could happen to the plant, the project will give us a fresh insight, which will in turn be useful in conducting further studies for developing and improving rice breeds," he said.

At a glance

-- The National Science and Technology Development Agency is collaborating with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to conduct experiments that are part of Thai research projects in a space module.

-- Growing rice in space is one of the projects under consideration.

-- A research team is trying to develop in vitro plants and scrutinise the growth of plants grown using a tissue culture in a bottle under controlled conditions.

-- The team is expected to conduct experiments in the space module within the next two years.