It marks the first time a plant has been grown on the moon.
China made history in January when it landed its Chang’e-4 spacecraft on the far side of the moon. The mission was also the first to experiment with growing plants on the moon, and it transported a mini-biosphere dubbed the Lunar Micro Ecosystem to the lunar surface (LME). Except for the microgravity and cosmic radiation, the circumstances within this compact, cylindrical biosphere were comparable to those on Earth. The LME included the following:
- potato seeds
- cotton seeds
- rapeseeds
- yeast
- fruit fly eggs
- Arabidopsis thaliana, a common weed
Except for the cotton, all of these perished shortly. A new 3D reconstruction indicates that the cotton plant sprouted two leaves before succumbing to frigid conditions after roughly two weeks. The findings indicate that the experiment was slightly more effective than previously assumed.
The experiment’s leader, Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University’s Advanced Technology Research Institute, has no plans to publish any scholarly articles based on this research. He does, however, plan to continue researching how diverse lifeforms might be able to live on the moon.
WHY DOES NASA WISH TO GROW PLANTS IN SPACE?
If NASA or other space organizations want to conduct long-term missions, they must learn how to consistently cultivate plants in space.
“Packing a multivitamin will not be enough to keep astronauts healthy while they explore deep space,” NASA stated in April. “They’ll require fresh produce.”
Why? Some factors are logistical in nature. Nutrients in supplements and prepared meals, for example, may degrade with time, and radiation may hasten this process. As a result, producing fresh vegetables would provide astronauts with more nutrients, as well as better-tasting meals. Also, if astronauts could grow plants on spacecraft, they wouldn’t need to bring as much prepared food with them.
However, there are psychological advantages to growing plants in space.
“We already know from our forefathers that fresh flowers and gardens on the International Space Station create a wonderful ambience and allow us to take a small bit of Earth with us on our voyages,” NASA noted. “They are beneficial to our psychological well-being both on Earth and in space.”
NASA is also interested in making astronaut meals in space a pleasurable experience. For example, on recent missions, the agency packed comfort food and holiday meals, and it conducted research on astronauts’ preferences for communal versus solo dining, as well as whether they benefit from cooking their own food. Other academics are investigating how astronauts’ emotional requirements might be met by space eating, as well as how to mitigate space-travel-specific phenomena such as loss of smell.
“At the end of the day,” NASA nutritionist Scott Smith told Eater, “we’re not concerned about the muscle cells.” “We’re concerned about the person.”