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> The plants are in a sealed container on board the lander. For a moment I thought they were in the open... Since they are enclosed is there a reason why they
by nyc111 8y ago
> The plants are in a sealed container on board the lander.
For a moment I thought they were in the open... Since they are enclosed is there a reason why they should not sprout? The gravity is less but that should not make a difference.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago> The gravity is less but that should not make a difference. That's the theory, indeed, and this experiment proves it - science!
- _rpd 8y agoInterestingly, low gravity changes the way plants express their genes ... Organ-specific remodeling of the Arabidopsis transcriptome in response to spaceflight https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2229-13-112 https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471...
- duchenne 8y agoThe temperature might be an issue. The moon surface 106°C during the day, -183°C during the night. Also, the sun is brighter in space than an Earth under the atmosphere. The long days and nights lasting 12 Earth days each might also be problematic.
- nyc111 8y agoStill, it would have been interesting to see what happens to the seed on the surface of the moon. Maybe a cactus used to desert sun could adapt to the harsh conditions on the moon.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pjc50 8y agoSo according to NASA https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19860010460.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/198600... plants cannot grow in a hard vaccum, but they require only a very little oxygen pressure to grow. Depressurisation is somewhat survivable: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927953-500-vacuum-of-space-no-match-for-the-mighty-radish/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927953-500-vacuum-o... but dehydration starts to happen. Vaccum is a very effective dessicant.
- andygates 8y agoThey're in a controlled environment, not being baked and frozen. This is a test of the gravity only. Test one thing at a time.
- nyc111 8y agoAnswers all my questions about the experiment https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-grows-first-plants-on-the-moon https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-grows-first-plants-on-...