China to grow potatoes on the Moon
In December, China aims to bring plants to the Moon, where they are meant to be the first crops to grow on another world. The plants form part of the Chang’e 4 mission, which will send a landing module and a rover to the far side of the Moon. The Chinese mission is an important part of the plan to build a research station on the rear side of the Moon and, over time, a permanent base.
Scientists will plant seeds in small, sealed, tin-shaped containers made of a special aluminium alloy. They are 18 cm high and have a diameter of 16 cm. The containers include air, water, nutrients, camera, and a radio transmitter, so information about the environment of the tins can be transmitted back to Earth to be analysed by scientists.
The first crops to be launched are potato plants and thale cress. The potato plant could become an important food item of a lunar base, and thale cress grows quickly and could produce quick research results. Next step: the first silkworms on the Moon.
The Moon orbits Earth in a captured rotation, i.e. the same side is always facing us, making the Moon’s rear side particularly inte-resting to astronomers, who wish to study remote objects of the universe without any interruption from radiation coming from Earth.