NASA hopes to put a garden on the Moon

Neil Armstrong may have made a giant leap forward for mankind when he landed on the moon more than 40 years ago, but scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in California are looking out for plantkind. The Lunar Plant Growth Habitat project is hoping to put some basil, flowers and turnips on the moon in late 2015.

"We are constructing a small technology demonstration unit to study germination of plants in lunar gravity and radiation on the moon," said NASA in a statement on the project's website. "This will be the first life-sciences experiment on another world."

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Sorry if this has already been posted, I did a quick search and didn't find anything.

Hope they keep their word and keep us up to date with the progress of the plants. Curious to see how this could turn out.

reply to post by ItzShadyT


Oh my god, isn't it enough that we've got monsatans monstrosities, just imagine what they'll do with moon turnips!

VoidHawk
reply to post by ItzShadyT

 

Oh my god, isn't it enough that we've got monsatans monstrosities, just imagine what they'll do with moon turnips!

I was thinking Moon Opiates myself. Poppy crops as far as you could see. I also briefly wondered what effect being on the moon would have on the opiate plants. Would it cancel out the efficiency or would it possibly make it more potent than anything we can grow down here.

These kinds of things always make me go off into left field with the imagination.

Kangaruex4Ewe

VoidHawk
reply to post by ItzShadyT

 

Oh my god, isn't it enough that we've got monsatans monstrosities, just imagine what they'll do with moon turnips!

I was thinking Moon Opiates myself. Poppy crops as far as you could see. I also briefly wondered what effect being on the moon would have on the opiate plants. Would it cancel out the efficiency or would it possibly make it more potent than anything we can grow down here.

These kinds of things always make me go off into left field with the imagination.

hmmm, well they could grow them with heads 5 times larger (less gravity) therefore 5 times the yield, but how would they explain the moon turning red

VoidHawk

Kangaruex4Ewe

VoidHawk
reply to post by ItzShadyT

 

Oh my god, isn't it enough that we've got monsatans monstrosities, just imagine what they'll do with moon turnips!

I was thinking Moon Opiates myself. Poppy crops as far as you could see. I also briefly wondered what effect being on the moon would have on the opiate plants. Would it cancel out the efficiency or would it possibly make it more potent than anything we can grow down here.

These kinds of things always make me go off into left field with the imagination.

hmmm, well they could grow them with heads 5 times larger (less gravity) therefore 5 times the yield, but how would they explain the moon turning red

Revelations....

That's a lot of yield and A LOT of money!

VoidHawk

Kangaruex4Ewe

VoidHawk
reply to post by ItzShadyT

 

Oh my god, isn't it enough that we've got monsatans monstrosities, just imagine what they'll do with moon turnips!

They can always reverse that by sending some cannabis plants up to the moon. But then how will NASA explain the moon turning green? Hmm.

Oh i know tell the general public that the Hulk went to the moon and took a giant $hit on the moon.

I was thinking Moon Opiates myself. Poppy crops as far as you could see. I also briefly wondered what effect being on the moon would have on the opiate plants. Would it cancel out the efficiency or would it possibly make it more potent than anything we can grow down here.

These kinds of things always make me go off into left field with the imagination.

hmmm, well they could grow them with heads 5 times larger (less gravity) therefore 5 times the yield, but how would they explain the moon turning red

I hope I'm not showing my ignorance here, but I thought plants needed oxygen to grow?
Also, who's going to water them?
What kind of weeds will Monsanto send so they can use their outdated Roundup?
And when will Walmart start carrying it?

nugget1
I hope I'm not showing my ignorance here, but I thought plants needed oxygen to grow?

Plants are net producers of oxygen, though they consume it at night they produce more during the day than they consume. What they need even more is carbon dioxide.

The article doesn't say so but I think it's safe to assume the plants will be in a mini-biosphere with Earth-like atmosphere and a supply of water. The watering is initially automatic and the water can't escape from a sealed biosphere. My guess would be that some plants will be more radiation-tolerant than others. We could run tests on Earth in a lab that simulates sunlight on the moon, to screen plant types that have the best chance of success.

Since a day on the moon is something like 28 days long, plants won't be adapted to that initially...wonder how they will cope with that? That's 14 days of intense radiation then 14 days of darkness. I think that will be a problem initially, but maybe they can adapt somehow. I know if I move some seedling plants into darkness they get all gangly trying to reach some light, but again it depends on the type of plant.

reply to post by ItzShadyT


Was it not this kind of stuff they should have done some 40 years ago when they really had the chance to do some serious scientific Experiments. After all they had 6 missions up there and a bunch of People fooling around playing golf and all other kind of silly Things. What took NASA so long?

The scientists at NASA probably can't even grow a garden on earth....How much will it cost us to get the farmer up there to grow it?

reply to post by ItzShadyT


Maybe after they put some plants on the moon they could try putting a man up there.

helius
reply to post by ItzShadyT

 

Was it not this kind of stuff they should have done some 40 years ago when they really had the chance to do some serious scientific Experiments. After all they had 6 missions up there and a bunch of People fooling around playing golf and all other kind of silly Things. What took NASA so long?

Well after about 40 years, I'd say we'd advanced in technology enough that it's more plausible.

And as for who's going to water the plants and the such, it seems as tho they've got machines to do the work for them once the shuttle lands.

When the garden lands on the moon, it will automatically trigger a small reservoir to squirt water on nutrient-rich filter paper. The dissolved nutrients will trickle down to the seeds, prompting the seeds to start growing. NASA will photograph the seeds' progress to see what happens to the plants as they grow with less gravity and increased radiation.

I bet NASA is doing this because China said they were doing something with the moon as well... I forget the specifics....

WW3 starts over who owns the moon....

Who stole the Moon??? MURICA!!!

Here's a thought...clean up this planet and plant a few things here maby? Good idea? No...Ok. Then lets start on another planet first.

reply to post by ItzShadyT


"NASA will photograph the seeds' progress to see what happens to the plants as they grow with less gravity and increased radiation."

The plants will probably grow eyes and legs and learn how to do calculus...or something else Stan Lee would approve of.

Spidercrab
Here's a thought...clean up this planet and plant a few things here maby? Good idea? No...Ok. Then lets start on another planet first.

100% agree with you. We should know everything about our own planet before even trying to explore others. Just imagine all the species and plant life in the ocean that's undiscovered. There could be a cure for AIDS some where under there!

reply to post by ItzShadyT


This sounds very interesting and all, but after reading the article, I'm left wondering a couple things. I wonder if this experiment is going to be completely enclosed, with the soil, water and all materials needed to get the plants started. The article mentioned water and "nutrient-rich paper." But is this a biosphere type thing or are they actually going to attempt to grow these plants in the lunar soil? Somehow I doubt that, but the article didn't make it clear.

Thanks for posting this, OP! I actually find it a bit fascinating.

reply to post by gemineye


Glad you enjoyed it. From my understanding, they're not just gonna plant seeds into the crust of the moon, They just want to see if it's at all possible to grow earth vegetation on another planet, and how it will be affected by the conditions of said planet. I'm also pretty excited about this, who knows what else this could lead too?

Humanity is too greedy to even feed the starving on this planet, we have plenty of land to grow food here,
let me guess, its sponsored by Monsanto?

Maybe someone needs a rocket up the moon

oxford
Humanity is too greedy to even feed the starving on this planet, we have plenty of land to grow food here,
let me guess, its sponsored by Monsanto?

Maybe someone needs a rocket up the moon

Actually, from what I read, Nasa's looking for a company they can give 400,000 too.