Dharwad: As the Axiom-4 mission garners international attention from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, has quietly made history of its own—by sending dry seeds of greengram and fenugreek (methi) to the International Space Station (ISS) for advanced nutritional research.
Dr Ravikumar Hosamani, Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, UAS Dharwad, and the principal investigator of the project, shared with Deccan Herald that astronauts often suffer from nutritional deficiencies during extended space missions. To address this, UAS has dispatched these two staple Indian crops to explore their potential as fresh, sprouted food options in space.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, currently aboard the ISS, will add water to the seeds to stimulate germination, expected to occur within 2 to 4 days. Once sprouted, the samples will be frozen for preservation and brought back to Earth for further analysis.
“These sprouts will be studied for their germination success, nutritional richness, phytohormonal behavior, gene expression changes, and microbial safety,” said Dr Hosamani. The goal is to develop India-centric, nutrient-dense salad options that are ideal for space missions.
Greengram is a resilient crop known for thriving in dry regions, while fenugreek is packed with medicinal properties that support bone health, immunity, cardiovascular function, and prevent kidney stones—all crucial for astronaut wellbeing.
The frozen sprouts are expected to return to UAS Dharwad within two weeks. Dr Sudheer Siddapureddy from IIT-Dharwad is co-investigating this groundbreaking project.