Giant Leaf For Mankind? China Germinates First Seed on Moon (theguardian.com)

A small green shoot is growing on the moon after a cotton seed germinated onboard a Chinese lunar lander, scientists said. From a report: The sprout has emerged from a lattice-like structure inside a canister after the Chang'e 4 lander touched down earlier this month, according to a series of photos released by the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University. "This is the first time humans have done biological growth experiments on the lunar surface," said Xie Gengxin, who led the design of the experiment, on Tuesday. Plants have been grown previously on the International Space Station, but this is the first time a seed has sprouted on the moon. The ability to grow plants in space is seen as crucial for long-term space missions and establishing human outposts elsewhere in the solar system, such as Mars.

Comments

Earth soil

[Tablizer]

It appears it's Earth soil. I found nothing in the article to suggest it's using lunar soil here, which would be the real test. The article should have pointed that out; it's not a trivial admission.

Re:And so?

[careysub]

After the sprouting comes growth. No one has ever raised a plant in a gravity field of 1/6 G. Never. Schemes to simulate it on Earth do not really do that, and while a centrifuge in orbit can do a proper simulation, no one has ever operated such a centrifuge over a plants life cycle.

Re:And so?

[AmiMoJo]

They are trying to create a completely self contained environment in which plants and fruit flies can live, and observe the effects of low gravity on them.

Sure, we assumed it would be fine, but it's a good idea to prove that assumption before sending tonnes of soil and plants up there with a view to sustaining human life. It's also a useful test of the sealed environment idea and technology, in an environment subject to extreme temperature swings.

Much of that tech will be applicable to Mars too.