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Chang'e-4's Seeds Begin Sprouting on the Moon

posted by martyb on Tuesday January 15 2019, @01:38PM   
from the seeds-of-chang'e dept.

takyon writes:

China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout

Seeds taken up to the Moon by China's Chang'e-4 mission have sprouted, says China National Space Administration. It marks the first time any biological matter has grown on the Moon, and is being seen as a significant step towards long-term space exploration. [...] Plants have been grown on the International Space Station before but never on the Moon.

[...] The Chinese Moon lander was carrying among its cargo soil containing cotton and potato seeds, yeast and fruit fly eggs. The plants are in a sealed container on board the lander. The crops will try to form a mini biosphere - an artificial, self-sustaining environment.

[...] On Tuesday, Chinese state media said the cotton seeds had now grown buds. The ruling Communist Party's official mouthpiece the People's Daily tweeted an image of the sprouted seed, saying it marked "the completion of humankind's first biological experiment on the Moon".

Fred Watson, Australian Astronomical Observatory's astronomer-at-large, told the BBC the development was "good news". "It suggests that there might not be insurmountable problems for astronauts in future trying to grow their own crops on the moon in a controlled environment."

According to SCMP, a similar biosphere experiment will be conducted on Earth for comparison.

A Chang'e-5 lunar exploration vehicle could be launched by the end of 2019, and would include a 2 kg sample return. At least 3 more Chang'e missions are planned.

Previously: China's Chang'e 4 Spacecraft Lands on the Far Side of the Moon
Chang'e Lander Sends Back Far Side Panorama

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Original Submission

• Completed? Completed? (Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 15 2019, @03:16PM (2 children)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Tuesday January 15 2019, @03:16PM (#786915) Journal

  "the completion of humankind's first biological experiment on the Moon"

  Seriously? The seeds germinated, and the experiment is "completion"?

  Let's hope this is some kind of translation error. Maybe what they mean is "stage one is completed"? Get the biosphere cooking, and see how long you can keep it going. Nothing is near complete yet.

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• Re:Completed? (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15 2019, @07:22PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15 2019, @07:22PM (#787013)

  Do you realize that someone running an experiment is allowed to set the parameters?

  Stay in school kids!

  Parent

• Re:Completed? (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 16 2019, @03:25PM

  by khallow (3766) on Wednesday January 16 2019, @03:25PM (#787395) Journal

  Welcome to ISLE (Improving Standards by Lowering Expectations). Declare the mission accomplished early on so people don't think you failed when the experiment inevitably falls apart down the road. The same was done with the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). 90 days in, they declared the mission accomplished. If they had instead claimed the mission was to last 20 years, then we'd be wondering why the two rovers aren't still going.
  
  There are considerable risks of failure from this point on that have little to do with the mission itself too. After all, if the experiment gets wiped out in a few days by a solar flare, is the whole thing a failure?The probe deployed on the surface and they successfully germinated seeds on the Moon - a big tech demonstration hurdle. Anything past that is going to be gravy at this stage.

  Parent