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posted by mrpg on Friday January 18 2019, @01:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-lose-hope-humans! dept.

First green leaf on moon dies as temperatures plummet

The appearance of a single green leaf hinted at a future in which astronauts would grow their own food in space, potentially setting up residence at outposts on the moon or other planets. Now, barely after it had sprouted, the cotton plant onboard China’s lunar rover has died.

The plant relied on sunlight at the moon’s surface, but as night arrived at the lunar far side and temperatures plunged as low as -170C, its short life came to an end.

Prof Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University, who led the design of the experiment, said its short lifespan had been anticipated. “Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night,” Xie said.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by NateMich on Friday January 18 2019, @03:57PM (1 child)

    by NateMich (6662) on Friday January 18 2019, @03:57PM (#788271)

    Wouldn't it make more sense to grow the plant under artificial lighting (that can be set to a 24h cycle like on Earth), and use solar cells and batteries to power that lighting as well as heating when necessary?

    Yes, because solar powered robotic missions always bring enormous panels and batteries with them to power a secondary mission objective for 2 weeks at a time.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday January 18 2019, @07:13PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday January 18 2019, @07:13PM (#788373)

    The whole thing stops operation for two weeks because of the darkness and cold.
    There would be no reason to engineer one piece to stay awake and warm, only the CPU gets this luxury, with "awake and warm" being a lot lower than any leaf could survive.