EXPERIMENTS devised by children will be the first from Scotland to go into orbit.
They are to be blasted off to scientists on the International Space Station.
More than 200 secondary pupils in Renfrewshire took part in this summer's week-long Mission Discovery school led by ex-astronauts Ken and Michelle Ham.
This week, pupils visited the University of the West of Scotland to see their winning experiments being built.
Dr Julie Keeble, a pharmacology lecturer at Kings College, London visited the university with them.
She said: "They were asked to come up with an idea for an experiment worthy of astronaut time up in the space station.
"The winning ideas show creative thought and innovation and are well deserving of their journey up to the space station."
The experiments include testing the feasibility of producing oxygen from cactus plants.
Professor Craig Mahoney, the University of the West of Scotland's principal and vice chancellor, said: "The importance of promoting science, engineering, technology and mathematics- based subjects and nurturing our best talent in these areas cannot be underestimated."
The average cost of sending one kilo of material to the International Space Station is £16,000.
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