NASA plans to grow a vegetable garden on the moon - EXAME.com

Disclosure / NASA

House on the Moon: Sealed bid for germination chamber on the moon will board the spaceship to win the Lunar X-Prize, the contest Google in 2015

NASA (space agency) intends to make an unusual experiment in 2015: send the Moon a small nursery to cultivate turnips, watercress and basil. The objective of the research is to determine whether humans can live and work on the moon for decades.

A statement from the Ames Research Center NASA says that sending plants may be the first step towards long-term human presence. Sealed for this attempt germination chamber on the moon will board the spaceship to win the Lunar X-Prize, Google competition, in 2015.

According to NASA, the idea is to create a simple cultivation chamber, sealed, that can sustain germination over a period of five to ten days on the Moon The agency imagines a filter paper and dissolved nutrients in the chamber You can feed a hundred seeds of cress, ten seeds of basil and ten other turnip.

When the ship landed on the moon, a mechanism will release a small water tank that will dampen the paper and then it starts the germination of seeds. The shoots will be photographed at regular intervals to compare the growth with control plants on Earth.

is noteworthy that the experiment does not involve the testing of plant cultivation on the lunar surface, which is covered by a powder without nutrients that sustain plant life and without decomposed organic material that enriches the earth’s soil. Furthermore, the radiation levels on the Moon are much more intense than on Earth, since the satellite does not have an atmosphere that holds the most harmful rays of the sun

Food in space – A garden on the moon is not the only attempt by NASA to assemble a “spatial farm.” The program crop production (Veggie) also plans to the International Space Station (ISS) kits for growing six plants of romaine. After 28 days of growth under lights pink LED plants will be ready for harvest.

But the astronauts can not eat lettuce space yet. The first harvest will be sent back to Earth for analysis. Scientists will analyze whether the vegetables are really healthy, clean and free of bacteria.

After the first harvest of lettuce, vegetables such as radishes and peas, should grow in space. With the advancement of the program, NASA will have to discover a method to manage the most complicated plantations. Wheat, for example, equipment and require preparation before consumption.

addition to these projects, NASA invested in May, $ 125,000 on a project to create a prototype of a 3D printer for food. If successful, the machine can create food for astronauts on long space voyages.

printer uses cartridges with organic materials, oils, carbohydrates and protein powders to manufacture food. The combination of these cartridges allows the machine to print layer by layer, until the food take shape. Each cartridge can have a shelf life of 30 years, which will be useful in long distance space travel.

The creator of the project, Anjan Contractor, has proved that the system works for printing chocolate. The next step will be trying to print a pizza. In this case, the printer creates a first layer of pasta sauce and then with a mixture of tomato powder, water and oil. Coverage will be a layer of protein, ensuring you do not miss any source of nutrient in food.