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China Grows Moon’s First Plant, Makes History

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In the beginning of January, 2019, a Chinese probe did what no human or machine has ever accomplished. It landed on the far side of the Moon. Recently, it took another giant leaf for mankind by growing the first plant there. Cotton.

In the past, living organisms have been grown on the International Space Station, but never on the Moon. According to the BBC, “the ability to grow plants on the Moon will be integral for long-term space missions, like a trip to Mars which would take about two-and-a-half years.” Experts claim that this is the first step towards astronauts harvesting their own food in space, which would greatly reduce the need to come back down to Earth to resupply.

Among its cargo, the Chang’e 4 lunar lander was carrying soil containing cotton and potato seeds, yeast and fruit fly eggs. The crops are kept in a sealed container on board the lander. The idea is to use them to form a mini biosphere – an artificial, self-sustaining environment. The lunar experiment on the Chang’e-4 lander is designed to test photosynthesis and respiration (processes in living organisms that result in the production of energy). All of this magic is contained within an 18cm tall, 3kg canister that was designed by 28 Chinese universities.

Chinese scientists released this image of a cotton plant germinating in its tank on the moon aboard the Chang’e 4 lander. The photograph was taken Jan. 7, 2019

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

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Image credits: Chongqing University

Cotton seeds carried by Chinese lunar lander Chang’e 4 germinate on the far side of the moon

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

Image credits: Chongqing University

Project chief Liu Hanlong says the cotton seeds were the first to sprout

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

Image credits: cqnews.net

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

Seeds in the Chang’e-4 have begun sprouting after landing on the moon

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

Image credits: CLEP/Getty Images

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

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China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

An image of the Chinese biology experimental capsule now on the far side of the moon aboard the Chang’e 4 lander

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

Image credits: Chongqing University

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

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China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

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China Grows Moon's First Plant, Makes History

Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

What do you think ?

kodabar 5 years ago

There's a little bit of detail that's not really covered here and some of those commenting in the article miss the point because of it. Whilst plants have been grown aboard space stations before, this was a different experiment. It was designed to examine whether the plants and insects (silkworms are also included) can grow together symbiotically in a sealed ecosystem. That's something that hasn't been tried on the ISS. And it's interesting that the go-to example chosen by those commenters is the ISS when most of the plant experiments on there were preceded by very similar experiments on Skylab. Oh and for the guy who asked... there's also potatoes in there.

7points

Night Owl 5 years ago

Yup, they mentioned the potato seeds in the introduction up there too, it's just that the cotton seeds were the first to sprout so that's the main news and many internet sites etc. and/or the general consumer public mostly ignore the rest

1point

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Kenny Kulbiski 5 years ago

I don't know, the moon's been around for quite awhile so they can't be positive it's the first plant. Hell the moon might have been the garden spot of the galaxy at one time.

2points

Giovanni 5 years ago

Based on geological data the moon was formed from Earth debris when a palnetoid impacted our planet 4.5 bilions years ago, it was a giant ball of lava for milions of years and when it finally cooled down it was too small to mantain an atmosphere, so yea thay're positive. Also, plants didn't existed until 1.5 bilions years ago and by then the exchange of material betwheen earth and moon had already ended.

1point

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Scott Brynildsen 5 years ago

A bunch of the racist comments are probably coming from folks in trailer parks. How about the simple statement of: because we didn't know till we tried.

1point

Load More Comments

kodabar 5 years ago

There's a little bit of detail that's not really covered here and some of those commenting in the article miss the point because of it. Whilst plants have been grown aboard space stations before, this was a different experiment. It was designed to examine whether the plants and insects (silkworms are also included) can grow together symbiotically in a sealed ecosystem. That's something that hasn't been tried on the ISS. And it's interesting that the go-to example chosen by those commenters is the ISS when most of the plant experiments on there were preceded by very similar experiments on Skylab. Oh and for the guy who asked... there's also potatoes in there.

7points

Night Owl 5 years ago

Yup, they mentioned the potato seeds in the introduction up there too, it's just that the cotton seeds were the first to sprout so that's the main news and many internet sites etc. and/or the general consumer public mostly ignore the rest

1point

Load More Replies...

Kenny Kulbiski 5 years ago

I don't know, the moon's been around for quite awhile so they can't be positive it's the first plant. Hell the moon might have been the garden spot of the galaxy at one time.

2points

Giovanni 5 years ago

Based on geological data the moon was formed from Earth debris when a palnetoid impacted our planet 4.5 bilions years ago, it was a giant ball of lava for milions of years and when it finally cooled down it was too small to mantain an atmosphere, so yea thay're positive. Also, plants didn't existed until 1.5 bilions years ago and by then the exchange of material betwheen earth and moon had already ended.

1point

Load More Replies...

Scott Brynildsen 5 years ago

A bunch of the racist comments are probably coming from folks in trailer parks. How about the simple statement of: because we didn't know till we tried.

1point

Load More Comments

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