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Marigolds on the moon a possibility, scientists say

by Rob Peters | April 16, 2008 at 07:09 pm

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One small step for shrubkind...

Scientists with the European Space Agency (Esa) say the day when flowers bloom on the Moon has come closer.

An Esa-linked team has shown that marigolds can grow in crushed rock very like the lunar surface, with no need for plant food.

Some see growing plants on the Moon as a step towards human habitation.

But the concept is not an official aim of Esa, and one of the agency's senior officials has dismissed the idea as “science fiction”.

The new research was presented at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna, the largest annual European gathering of scientists studying the Earth, its climate and its neighbours in space.

Bernard Foing, a senior scientist with the European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec) in the Netherlands, believes growing plants on the Moon would be a useful as a tool to learn how life adapts to lunar conditions, and as a practical aid to establishing manned bases.

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Chris Jenkins

at 20:58 on April 16th, 2008

Interesting. I wonder how the lower gravity would affect the growing rate and size of the plant?

I would have thought there would be more obvious plants though - some of the desert like plants (Aloe spp., cactii, etc.)

nicolenanette

at 21:22 on April 16th, 2008

This is marigolds from my backyard. I have now only grown them in my front yard, for i have a desert tortoise and these are not good, maybe even fatal to the species.

nicolenanette has contributed a photo to this story.

marysiak

at 00:26 on April 17th, 2008

In my final year at Secondary School I grew Pansies from Outer Space as my Biology project, it was pretty tedoious but the flowers were nice. I expect Marigolds from the Moon will be considerably more affected by radiation and the lack of gravity than Pansy Seeds From the Space Shuttle.