A troop of Brownies from Ewell have started a voyage of discovery by planting seeds taken into space by British astronaut Tim Peake.

1st Ewell Village (St Mary’s) Brownies are one of 10,000 schools and youth groups who received a packet of 100 seeds flown to the International Space Station on Soyuz 4 IS in September 2015, and safely returned to Terra Firma in March.

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L-R: Marigold Jones, 9, Grace Nickson, 8, and Ella Stephens, 10, with some of the seeds

The Brownies received their packet this week and planted them during a group session on Thursday, March 21.

The troop, as well as their 9,999 fellow budding scientists, are now growing the space seeds alongside seeds which remained on Earth.

They will measure the differences over seven weeks, before sending the results for analysis by professional biostatisticians.

It is hoped the out-of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will encourage the Brownies to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.

District commissioner Mary Zoeller said: “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science.

"This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our Brownies and Guides to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole unit.”

Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture.

You can follow the project on Twitter @RHSSchools or by searching for #RocketScience

Got a story? Get in touch at craig.richard@london.newsquest.co.uk