Early this year the Chang’e 4 (named for the Chinese Moon goddess) landed on the moon and sent out the Yutu 2 (Chinese for “jade rabbit”) for a short hop on the surface. The mission achieved a first by growing cotton. Never before has mankind grown plants on the surface of another world. Unfortunately, when the sun set (as it does every two weeks) they quickly died from the extreme cold—minus 62 F.

“Huddled together, the seedlings resembled a miniature, deep-green forest.”

– Marina Koren, “How Do Plants Grow in Space?” Jan 30, 2019, The Atlantic

The next step will be to build a sustainable garden on the moon or, better yet, Mars. Along these lines, NASA recently posted the finalists of the “BIG Idea Challenge 2019” to develop planetary greenhouse concepts. If you’d like to experiment on growing plants on the Red Planet, pick up some dirt from the Martian Garden. Students at Villanova who tried this in 2017 found that onions, garlic, kale and hops grew well, which would make an interesting diet for Mars colonists.