The chinese lander on the moon brought cotton seeds which have sprouted. Potato seeds and rapeseeds also had sprouted.
This is the first time humans have done biological growth experiments on the lunar surface.
The bio-technical test load is made of special aluminum alloy material, 173 mm in diameter and 198.3 mm in height. In addition to 6 kinds of organisms, there are 18 ml of water inside, as well as soil, air, thermal control and two recorded biological growth states. The camera has a total weight of 2.608 kg and a biological growth space of about 1 liter.
Chang’e-4 has a mini biosphere bucket with cotton, rapeseed, potato, and arabidopsis seeds, as well as eggs of fruit flies and some yeast.
The plants produced oxygen and food by photosynthesis and sustained the fruit flies.
The yeast, acting as a decomposition agent, processed waste from the flies and the dead plants to create an additional food source for the insects.
Potatoes could be a main source food for space explorers, cotton could be used for clothing, and rapeseed could be a source of oil.
Seedlings in space! First-ever cotton plant on the Moon growing in #ChangE4 mini biosphere https://t.co/L8YpXqoVIG pic.twitter.com/3NVoCBUn5M
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 15, 2019
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