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Growing Plants In Lunar Gravity

Posted by Soulskill on from the jolly-green-astronaut dept.

smooth wombat writes "If everything goes according to plan, an experiment designed to test whether plants can grow in the limited lunar gravity will hitch a ride with a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize. 'The current prototype for the greenhouse is a 15-inch-high (37.5-centimeter-high) reinforced glass cylinder that's about 7 inches (18 centimeters) wide on the bottom. Seeds for a rapid-cycle type of Brassica plant — basically, mustard seeds — would be planted in Earth soil within the container.' The press release from Paragon Space Development Corporation outlines its partnership with Odyssey Moon to be the first to grow a plant on another world. In addition to the experiment, Paragon will be helping Odyssey with the thermal control system and lander design. To win the prize, Odyssey must land its craft on the lunar surface by the end of 2014."

4 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Paragon Firsts by quercus.aeternam · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm somewhat surprised that I hadn't heard of Paragon - they seem to have done some very interesting experiments.

    I was interested in seeing if it was like a biosphere, or how much regulation would be required. Unfortunately (according to TFA), they haven't actually designed anything yet.

    It will also be interesting to see how the plants handle having a lunar day to complete their life cycle. It would be very cool if the plants were able to perpetuate for a while - even if only for a few days/cycles.

    I for one will be quite interested in how this develops...

  2. Re:Plants grow in microgravity. by Maelwryth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, that was my thought to. I was thinking more about larger plants though. Would fruit still grow the same shape under lunar gravity? Would you have to ration water to the plants so they don't suck up to much water and collapse? Would they have similar problems with nutrient loss as we do with calcium? Could be a very interesting experiment indeed.

    It does appear there have been some preliminary studies done. Including growing Arabidopsis thaliana on the ISS. And rice on the Space Shuttle STS-95 mission. The abstract does mention some elongation in the coleoptile of the rice. I would imagine the bigger the plant, the bigger the changes that would develop. It is, after all, studying the effect of gravity.

    --
    I reserve the write to mangle english.
  3. Re:What about... by ortholattice · · Score: 4, Interesting
    With a centrifuge, the experiment could be done on the Space Station, rotating at the right speed to emulate the moon's gravity. Still expensive, but not as much as a lunar surface version.

    On the other hand, it might be useful to run a centrifuge on earth and emulate say 1g + n*0.1g for n = 0 to 10. We could look at the resulting curve and extrapolate backwards. That of course assumes the extrapolation is meaningful, but it might give a rough indication of what to expect with very little expenditure.

  4. Sealed fate in a carboy by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In August 1997, I sealed a 20L glass carboy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboy) with desinfected soil and watertrumpet plants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocoryne). The water is only 40 mm deep just covering to root system. It just thrives!

    There are seasonal deaths of individual leaves and various succesions of fungus growths, in white, yellow and brown. The "ecosystem" has not crashed yet on me.

    However, I have not yet tested low gravity. That would be an effort beyond my budget...

    .