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RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

The cotton seeds in the Lunar Micro Ecosystem (LME), a small biosphere on China's Chang'e-4 spacecraft, grew better than initially thought back in January. [sciencealert.com]

The LME carried six organisms on board

cotton seeds
potato seeds
rape seeds
yeast
fruit fly eggs
Arabidopsis thaliana, a common, hardy weed

All of these were unsuccessful, except the cotton.

The LME was not heated and depended on direct sunlight to keep it warm enough for the organisms onboard to survive and grow.

In the 14 days before nightfall, and the inevitable -190C(-310F) Lunar nighttime temperatures, ended the experiment the cotton [sciencealert.com] was known to have sprouted, but it was thought

that there was only one leaf, but now data indicates there were two.

The image is a 3D reconstruction based on data analysis and image processing, and it clearly shows two leaves.

China is already planning a sample return mission in the mid 2020's Chang'e-5 (or its backup Chang'e-6) and the team responsible for the LME hopes to send more lifeforms on this one as well, including potentially more complex ones.
 

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