NASA to attempt to grow vegetables on the moon
There are parts
of the earth where plant life simply doesn't grow well, if at all. But that
isn't deterring NASA from attempting to grow veggies on the moon.
According to Britain's Daily Telegraph, the space
agency that put men on the moon will attempt to grow vegetables and herbs on
the lunar surface to see if humans could someday actually live there.
Obviously, there is no atmosphere surrounding
the moon that could sustain life, so NASA scientists aren't merely thinking of
taking a spacecraft there someday and tossing some seeds into the moon's
surface of space dust.
Rather, the British report said, NASA
"plans to send seeds to the moon in 2015 in sealed canisters containing
everything that is needed for the seedlings to thrive."
Humans would need to grow food to survive on the moon
More from the Telegraph:
As well as ten seeds each of basil and turnips, there will also be around
100 seeds of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and
mustard.
On landing, a trigger will release a small reservoir of water inside the
canister and a team on Earth will monitor how the seeds germinate when exposed
to lunar gravity and radiation.
A group of scientists, students and volunteers - known as the Lunar Plant
Growth Habitat team - are behind the project which will see the seedlings
photographed at intervals to compare with those planted on earth.
The air in the sealed containers should be adequate for more than 5 days of
growth.
"They can test the lunar environment for
us, acting as a canary in a coal mine," a NASA spokesman told the paper. "If we send
plants and they thrive, then humans probably can."
As stated earlier, however, for plants to thrive
they require the same components as human beings - food, air and water.
And besides providing sustenance, they can give
humans some psychological comfort as well, as evidenced by greenhouses that are
popular in Antarctica and the International Space Station.
Here's how the space agency plans to do this :
NASA plans on sending the seedlings to the
moon by hitching a lift on a
commercial spacecraft called the Moon Express lander, which is competing to win
Google's Lunar X-Prize in 2015.
Scientists are currently constructing a unit to study the germination of the
plants, which will have a mass of just one kilogram and will be deposited on
the moon.
NASA says water will then be added to the seeds
in the module after landing. The growth of the seedlings will be monitored for
five to 10 days and compared with Earth-based control seedlings.
Can they stand the test of time?
Included in the seed trial will be Arabidopsis, basis and turnips, NASA says. The space agency adds
that the experiment will be the first of its kind and "an important first
step in the utilization of plants for human life support."
NASA also plans for follow-up experiments that
the agency says will improve the technology inside the growth module to allow
for more comprehensive plant experiments.
If the sprouts make it 14 days, it would
demonstrate that they can grow in the moon's radioactive environment. Survival
for 60 days would mean that plant sexual reproduction (meiosis) can happen in a
lunar environment.
Six-month survival - 180 days - would
demonstrate effects of radiation on dominant and recessive genetic traits.
After that, the experiment could run for months through multiple generations,
which would increase the scientific returns.
NASA and other space agencies have conducted
much research on plant growth in microgravity environments, like on space
shuttle flights and in the International Space Station. But the lunar surface
is the only place "in which the effects of both lunar gravity and lunar
radiation on plant growth can be studied," said the Telegraph.
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
http://www.nasa.gov
http://www.extremetech.com
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