“Chang’e-4,” Chinese probe successfully made a soft landing on the dark side of the moon (for the first time in the history of mankind) and is named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, among other scientific experiments, took a 3-kg aluminum container with a few potatoes, Arabidopsis seeds and a handful of eggs of a silkworm. In combination with air, water and a special nutrient solutions, this container is a whole ecosystem. Potato and Arabidopsis will exhale oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide exhaled by the silkworm.
Closed ecosystem, “Chang’e-4”: life in the container
The success of the Chinese space program will tell us how much the extremely low gravity of the moon affects the growth of living organisms and the quality of the silk, weaving worms.
Despite the fact that NASA and other space agencies have already cultivated a variety of plants and animals on the International space station, it occurred in low earth orbit, where gravity is 90% of the earth. On the moon the gravity is only 17% of the earth, which significantly slows the growth of organisms. Aluminum biosphere “Chang’e-4” are insulated and equipped with its own source of energy that will allow it to cope with the extremes of lighting and temperature on the moon, but with gravity it don’t can. The experiment will show how the problem can be this unique environment for future lunar farmers.
And without that it is obvious that growing food on the moon will not be easy. As scientists have found on the ISS, water accumulates in the balls in low gravity; the water at the station was used to spray the plants, often sticking to them or to the material in which grew the plants. In 2014, it became known that people need at least 15% of the earth’s gravity to understand where the top, therefore, it is not obvious whether the plants and worms to grow normally at a weak lunar gravity at 17% of the earth.
As reported by the Chinese news Agency “Xinhua”, for the life of the little moon pioneers will follow a small camera and sensors that transmit data to the cylinder.
The biosphere contains the seeds of Arabidopsis and potato with silkworm cocoons, was developed jointly by the 28 Chinese universities.
“We already know that plants, including Arabidopsis and potato, as well as silkworms thrive in microgravity, so the biosphere with controlled climate on the surface of the moon will certainly do their job, but the experience itself is incredible, because no one else did,” says Anna-Lisa Paul, a space biologist from the University of Florida-Gainesville.
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