This story is full of so much win, I simply dont know where to start! As the headline clearly says, +NASA intends to grow plants on the Moon by the end of 2015. That would be a first in itself, but theres far more going on here. That deadline might sound familiar; its the deadline for completion of activities in order to qualify for the +Google Lunar XPRIZE - a $20m competition to land a commercial vehicle on the Moon and perform various tasks by the end of 2015. Thats no coincidence either. In a logical, if unexpected turn of events, NASA plans to use one of the contenders spacecraft to deliver their experiment to the Lunar surface for them. Having +Moon Express deliver the package saves NASA a fortune, so it makes a lot of sense. Its also nice to see the government agency making good use of commercial space companies in this way. The experiment itself is pretty small scale; it involves monitoring 3 different plants in a self-contained biome with enough air for around 5 days. Control biomes will also be monitored on Earth - both at NASA sites and at several schools around America. Thats another stroke of genius, if you ask me. It gets kids involved in an experiment which is actually happening in space and helps them learn about whats involved. While some might be disappointed by the scale, remember that this is a first step. Larger experiments will have to be carried out before we know whether plants can thrive on the Moon (and whether we can therefore rely on them for life support on long duration missions) but its great to know that people are thinking far enough ahead to actually make a start on this. Just think how much we could learn by establishing agriculture on the Moon and what the potential benefits are for reducing poverty here on Earth... click-to-read-mo.re/p/4bbS
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 17:03:20 +0000
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