In 2007, NASA formally banned crews from imbibing in orbit. Carbonated beverages are also outlawed on the International Space Station, because gas bubbles in a carbonated drink don’t act the same as on gravity-rich Earth. The bubbles lie there, evenly distributed in the liquid, instead of floating to the top. But this hasn’t stopped Anheuser-Busch InBev from creating plans to brew where no one has ever brewed before. Last December, as part of the macrobrewery’s microgravity research, the makers of Budweiser had Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket transport 20 barley seeds to the ISS, reports Smithsonian Magazine. Thinking of NASA’s long-term goal to send humans to Mars by the 2030s, space station scientists conducted two 30-da experiments, one on seed exposure and the other on barley germination. Bud wants to become the first beer of the red planet. Water is scarce outside of Earth, but Gary Hanning, who heads Budweiser’s innovation and barley research team, said that several universities are working on mining and mining technology for Mars, including mining water. But you can’t make much beer with 20 seeds of barley, and it is unclear if hops can be grown on Mars. But this hasn’t stopped other beer makers — and beer drinkers — from thinking about that other-worldly brew.
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