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First Green Leaf on Moon Dies as Temperatures Plummet

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

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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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Original Submission

• Re:No one will be living on the moonRe:No one will be living on the moon (Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Friday January 18 2019, @02:36PM (2 children)

  by DrkShadow (1404) on Friday January 18 2019, @02:36PM (#788236)

  You say this as though the same doesn't apply to Mars, asteroids, space station, space ships, Pluto, Ceres, and basically anything that could possibly be used for habitation or survival other than the rock that you're currently sitting on.

  So what if something happens to that rock? Throw up your hands and say it was a good run? So what about exploration of the solar system? Throw up your hands and tell everyone who's doing it how impossible it is?

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• Re:No one will be living on the moonRe:No one will be living on the moon (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @02:56PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @02:56PM (#788243)

  So what if something happens to that rock? Throw up your hands and say it was a good run?

  And what's wrong with that? You'll be dead anyway. But if you are unfortunate enough to be on one of those backup locations, what makes you think that you will remain human? You may not even survive without hi-tech products from Earth. Plastics, medicines are made from oil. So far, no oil on other planets, certainly not on Ceres etc. Planets are mostly dead stone; how much can you squeeze out of it? Earth is more than stone, it has biosphere, and that's why we are able to make things. That's why I say that feeble colonies are not an answer. What can make them self-sustaining? Pretty much two things: universal nuclear transmutator and molecular assembler. Last I checked, we still don't have them.

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  • Re:No one will be living on the moon(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @06:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 18 2019, @06:27PM (#788337)

    So far, no oil on other planets, certainly not on Ceres etc.

    Titan has hundreds of times more oil. It rains oil on Titan:

    https://www.space.com/4968-titan-oil-earth.html [space.com]

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