Ryerson students launch mushrooms into space

A group of RyersonUniversity students are hoping to 'boldly grow' where no one has grown before.

The students have sent mushroom spores into space, to see if they will grow on-board the International Space Station.

Last year, Ryerson became the first Canadian university to participate in the Student Spaceflights Experiments Program (SSEP), a program that pairs Ryerson students with local high school students to design experiments that could be performed in outer space.

Preet Kahlon, a medical physics student at Ryerson, is one ina team of fivestudents who designed the experiment.

"We decided oyster mushroomsbecause they are edible, they have a high source of fibre, a high source of protein, and low in fat...and because of the small growth period with oyster mushrooms, we're hoping one day possibly astronauts could grow it as a food source," she told CBC's Metro Morningon Thursday.

The oyster mushroom experiment, inside a 10-inch silicone tube with threecompartments, was recently shipped to Texas, put on a rocket, and launched to astronauts on-board the ISS. One of the compartments holds the spores, the second holds a food source of rice straw and water crystals, and a third compartment contains a fixative to preserve the results of the experiment.

"What they will do once they get itis they open the little latch in between themand then, shaking it, essentially offering the food for the spores," said Kahlon.

She says mushrooms can consume what's already available in space.

"The great thing about oyster mushrooms is the food source that it uses is so vast. We can use anything from ground coffee beans, to honestly, used up cardboard, paper, and that's stuff that we would assume would be readily available to the astronauts, so if you could use that plus water to make food, that's awesome, right?"

Waiting for growth

The students have to wait for the test tube to return to earth so they can get their results.

"Fingers crossed, we get our experiment back around the end of August ... open it up ... using different types of dyes to separate the growth from the food and from the fixative as well."

What they'll be looking for is any evidence that the mushrooms could be a food source for space travellers.

"What we're hoping is essentially to get growth," she said. "That would be so great. We're basically saying hey you can grow your own food in orbit."