A photo dated 7 January, showing a sprouting cotton seed on the Chang’e4 lander before lunar night fell Chongqing University/CLEP
Goodbye, moon garden, we hardly knew ye.聽No sooner did we hear that cotton seeds had sprouted on China’s lunar lander than we learned the experiment had ended as night fell over the far side of the moon.
The plants were kept alive by sunlight on the moon鈥檚 surface, redirected into the canister where they were growing.
Now, two weeks after the Chang鈥檈 4 probe鈥檚 historic landing, it has been plunged into darkness for the first time.聽The temperature outside could fall as low as 鈭170鈩.
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The probe entered 鈥渟leep mode鈥 on Sunday. “Life in the canister would not survive the lunar night,” 聽Xie Gengxin, the designer of the experiment, told
Nevertheless, the brief flourishing of China鈥檚 moon garden marks an important milestone in the road towards a lunar base.
To survive any length of time on the moon or Mars, humans will have to grow plants for food, and perhaps other materials like fuel and clothes.
China aren’t the only space players with ambitions for a lunar base. The European Space Agency has outlined a vision for a where multiple organisations, including private companies, could come together to establish a community. NASA is also debating whether to send humans to the moon again, as preparation for a manned mission to Mars.
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