AS far as Norton Fitzwarren youngsters Charlie rose, Lucius and Sophia Fenech are concerned - it is rocket science.

They are preparing to take off as space biologists on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space.

In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station, where they will be in microgravity before returning to Earth next month.

It is part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

Charlie rose, Lucius and Sophia will receive 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks.

The children won’t know which packets contain which seeds until results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional biostatisticians.

The out-of-this-world, nationwide experiment will enable the children to think about how we could preserve human life on another planet, what astronauts need to survive long-term space missions and the difficulties of growing fresh food in challenging climates.