Nikoloz Doborjginidze co-founded a project to develop grape varieties that can be grown on Mars and is hoping to work with NASA on the project.

'Georgians were first winemakers on Earth and now we hope to pioneer viticulture on the planet next door,' he said.

Nestling between the Great Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea, Georgia has a mild climate that is perfect for vineyards and has developed a thriving wine tourism industry.

After NASA called for the public to contribute ideas for a 'sustained human presence' on the Red Planet, a group of Georgian researchers and entrepreneurs got together to propel the country's wine-making onto an interplanetary level.

Their project is called IX Millennium - a reference to Georgia's long history of wine-making.

The country has boasted that it has been making wine for 8,000 years - longer than any other nation - since archaeologists found traces of wine residue in ancient clay vessels.

IX Millennium is managed by a consortium set up by the Georgian Space Research Agency, Tbilisi's Business and Technology University, the National Museum and a company called Space Farms.

While it might seem like the stuff of science fiction, the idea of humans quaffing wine on the fourth planet from the Sun is coming closer to reality.