SpaceX Falcon 9 Scientists to Study Beer in Outer Space For Future Martian Brewing

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will bring equipment for scientists to study fire in zero gravity as well as a handful of mice that will be used to study how muscle atrophies in deep space. But all we care about is the beer. That’s right, beer. Tagging along for the journey to the International Space Station are some barley seeds from Anheuser-Busch in one of the first steps towards making Budweiser the first beer on Mars. That is, as long as there’s no trendy, Martian microbrewery cranking out India pale ales there already.

Scientists will perform two experiments on the barley once it makes its way to space. The first will examine the effects of barley seeds in a microgravity environment. The second will test how barley seeds react to exposure to outer space. The seeds will be studied for a month in the hopes that the team’s findings will pave the way for the keys to brewing beer in outer space. It seems like global warming and pollution on Earth mean that we’ll eventually have to find a new planet to inhabit. And, since none are close by, we’re definitely going to need to have a lot of beer on board. Whether or not it’s the fairly bleak, red planet that didn’t seem so fun to live on in Total Recall remains to be seen.

The potential of beer in space makes us think of some of our favorite space movies. Because if we know anything, drinking beer in space couldn’t possibly go wrong. Nothing bad ever happens in space.