(Yicai) Sept. 24 -- China is moving to establish a dedicated commercial satellite platform for seed breeding in space, rather than continuing to rely mainly on spare capacity aboard other satellites and space missions.

The initiative, launched by the Shaanxi Aerospace Breeding Engineering Technology Research Center and Zhongke Satellite Technology Group, is intended to make space mutagenesis experiments more customizable, scalable, and accessible to researchers and breeders. Shaanxi provincial authorities made the announcement yesterday.

“There’s been no dedicated satellite platform specifically designed for biological space mutagenesis, making it difficult to customize or scale up experimental payloads, in-orbit durations, and testing conditions,” said Guo Rui, the research center’s director. “China's aerospace breeding experiments have relied on piggybacking on existing satellites or utilizing space station missions.”

The development and launch of a dedicated commercial space-breeding satellite will give seeds traveling into space their own “exclusive transport,” he noted.

Space breeding, also known as space mutagenesis, is an agricultural technique where plant seeds or other plant materials are sent into orbit to be exposed to environmental conditions that cannot be fully reproduced on Earth. Once back on the ground, they are screened to identify useful heritable mutations and develop new crop varieties.

Shaanxi Aerospace Breeding and Zhongke Satellite have also signed an agreement to jointly establish a Joint Laboratory for Space Biological Mutagenesis, the announcement said. Set up in Xi'an University, the lab is a collaborative effort involving universities, research institutions, and commercial aerospace businesses, creating an open and shared innovation platform.

“Deep participation by commercial aerospace companies in space breeding is an important example of how space technology can drive 'new quality productive forces' in the agricultural sector,” said Zhang Zhihao, director of the Qiming Laboratory at Zhongke Satellite.

“New quality productive forces” is a Chinese policy term that refers broadly to new forms of economic productivity driven by technological innovation, advanced industries, and higher-quality growth, rather than simply increasing inputs such as labor, land, or capital.

Jinan-based Zhongke Satellite will draw on its capabilities in satellite development, launch, tracking and control, and in-orbit operations to support development of the dedicated breeding-satellite platform and provide research teams with stable and reliable conditions for space-based experiments, Zhang said.

Editor: Tom Litting