Vegetables could grow on the moon US researchers have demonstrated how plants from Earth could be grown without soil on the moon or Mars. This would ease the process of colonising space in the future The first extraterrestrials to inhabit the moon probably won’t be little green men, but they could be little green plants. Researchers at the University of Arizona are demonstrating that plants from Earth could be grown hydroponically (without soil) on the moon or Mars, setting the table for astronauts who would find potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables awaiting their arrival. The research team has built a prototype lunar greenhouse in a lab on the university campus. It represents the last 18 feet of one of several tubular structures that would be part of a proposed lunar base. The tubes would be buried beneath the moon’s surface to protect the plants and astronauts from deadly solar flares, micrometeorites and cosmic rays. The membrane-covered module can be collapsed to a 4-foot-wide disk for interplanetary travel. It contains water-cooled sodium vapour lamps and long envelopes that would be loaded with seeds, ready to sprout. “We can deploy the module and have the water flowing to the lamps in ten minutes,” said Phil Sadler, president of Sadler Machine, which designed and built the lunar greenhouse. “30 days later, you have vegetables.” Standing beside the growth chamber, which was overflowing with greenery despite being windowless, principal investigator Gene Giacomelli said, “You can think of this as a robotic mechanism that is providing food, oxygen and fresh drinking water.” Giacomelli said that although this robot is built around living green plants – instead of the steel usually associated with engineering devices – it still requires all the components common to any autonomous system. These components, which include sensors that gather data, algorithms to analyse that data and a control system to optimise performance, are being designed by  Roberto Furfaro and Murat Kacira. “We want the system to operate itself,” Kacira said. “However, we’re also trying to devise a remote decision-support system that would allow an operator on Earth to intervene. The system can build its own analysis and predictions, but we want to have access to the data and the control system.” This is similar to the way a food-production system has been operating at the South Pole for the past six years. Giacomelli said the research also could lead to plant colonisation in another hostile environment – large urban centres. “There’s great interest in providing locally grown, fresh food in cities, for growing food right where masses of people are living,” Giacomelli said. “It’s the idea of growing high-quality fresh food that only has to be transported very short distances. There also would be a sense of agriculture returning to the everyday lives of urban dwellers.” “I think that idea is as exciting as establishing plant colonies on the moon.”

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