Growing Plants In Lunar Gravity 111
smooth wombat writes "If everything goes according to plan, an experiment designed to test whether plants can grow in the limited lunar gravity will hitch a ride with a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize. 'The current prototype for the greenhouse is a 15-inch-high (37.5-centimeter-high) reinforced glass cylinder that's about 7 inches (18 centimeters) wide on the bottom. Seeds for a rapid-cycle type of Brassica plant — basically, mustard seeds — would be planted in Earth soil within the container.' The press release from Paragon Space Development Corporation outlines its partnership with Odyssey Moon to be the first to grow a plant on another world. In addition to the experiment, Paragon will be helping Odyssey with the thermal control system and lander design. To win the prize, Odyssey must land its craft on the lunar surface by the end of 2014."
Wow (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Plants grow in microgravity. (Score:5, Insightful)
Thus any differences between earth grav and 1/6 earth grav are likely to be negligible. Dumbest experiment ever.
Famous last words...
Growing is easy (Score:1, Insightful)
The hard part is keeping them from frying in direct sunlight.
Re:What about... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Rapid growth (Score:2, Insightful)
Potatoes, perhaps?
The leaves are just solar panels, after all.
Re:What about... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Plants grow in microgravity. (Score:3, Insightful)
We can make educated guesses, but we are almost guaranteed to have surprises.
Re:Plants grow in microgravity. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Plants grow in microgravity. (Score:3, Insightful)
The thing is, it wouldn't be hard to do the experiment at almost any gee level they wanted, using a centrifuge on the space station (well, two counter-rotating centrifuges to minimize angular momentum effects on the station). Of course for greater than one gee we can do the same thing on Earth.