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CNSA / Chongqing University
Less than two weeks after becoming the first mission to land on the far side of the moon, the Chinese probe Chang & # 39; e 4 on Tuesday gained a new feat, causing sprouting from a cotton seed on the natural satellite, the first growth of biological material in the region
• See the first panoramic image of the hidden face of the moon captured by the Chinese probe Chang & # 39 4
with the Chinese News Agency Xinhua to arrive on the entire Moon during the 20-day journey to the satellite, the seeds were put to sleep, using of a "biological technology", according to their definition
In addition to cottonseed, the mission also explored the hidden face of the moon: seeds of potatoes, rapeseed, arabidopsis, yeast and eggs of fruit flies. The plants are in a closed container on the probe. The goal is to try to create an artificial and autonomous miniature ecosystem, as written BBC . That is to say that it is good to point out that cotton has not been planted on the surface of the moon.
Seedlings in the space! First Cotton Plant on Crescent Moon in the # ChangE4 Mini Biosphere https://t.co/L8YpXqoVIG pic.twitter.com/3NVoCBUn5M – China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 15, 2019
The experiment is contained in a container 18 centimeters high, weighing three kilos, manufactured by 28 Chinese universities. The experiment seeks to test photosynthesis and plant respiration (energy production process in living beings) in this artificial ecosystem. In the container, air, water and nutrients were placed to help the seeds grow. It is difficult, according to the scientists, to maintain a favorable temperature, since the Moon alternates between -173 ° C and 100 ° C.
Liu Hanlong, the person in charge of the experiment, explains that these six components act as producers, consumers and decomposers in this miniature biosphere. According to South China Morning Post plants produce oxygen and food by photosynthesis for fruit flies. Yeast, in turn, acts as a decomposer and transforms fumes and plant residues to provide an additional source of food for insects. In anticipation of future space exploration, Hanlong believes that potatoes could be the food of explorers, while cotton could be used for clothing production.
Liu Hanlong stressed the importance of work for the preparation of future space exploration missions. . "We take into account the survival in the space in the future.To know more about the growth of these plants in a low gravity environment would allow us to lay the foundations of our future implantation of space bases", he said in a statement reproduced by the South China Morning Post . The National Space Administration of China does not stop there though. The agency has planned four other lunar missions, including that of Chang & # 39; e 5, scheduled for late 2019. This will be the first mission to bring samples of the Moon to Earth since the 1970s.
Tel reproduced here . ] Guardian Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the agency, explained that the mission Chang & # 39; e 6 should in turn bring samples from the South Pole of the Moon and that future surveys should allow to carry out a work deepened in the region. a series of missions preparing the construction of a lunar research base likely to use 3D printing technologies.
[BBC, South China Morning Post e Guardian]
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