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China Plans to Send Silkworms and Potatoes to the Moon This Summer and We're Intrigued
23 January 2018
Silkworm larvae. (Wikimedia Commons)
If you feel like Earth is becoming less and less habitable each year, you’re not alone. Even famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking declared in 2017 that if human civilization is to survive, our best bet is to move to the moon within the next 30 years.
As it turns out, China is about to take the first steps toward testing livability on what’s often referred to as the “dark side” of the moon — the as-yet-unexplored southern hemisphere, not visible from Earth.
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As part of its Chang’e 4 mission, slated for lift-off in June 2018, the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) plans to send an aluminum alloy container of plants and insects to the southern hemisphere’s </span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lro-20100709-basin.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">South Pole–Aitken Basin</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, one of the largest impact basins, or craters, in the solar system.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The Chinese are pushing back the frontier with such a technically challenging mission,” space analyst Brian Harvey told </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/31/china-mission-to-far-side-of-the-moon-space-discovery"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Guardian</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0109c4268731250e353410768f71b766"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0UCPxLfOdZE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The container will be attached to a lander along with instruments to study the area’s geography, which </span><a href="http://www.sciencealert.com/china-will-be-carrying-insects-and-plants-to-the-surface-of-the-moon-this-year"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is thought</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to contain large amounts of water ice.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The container will send potatoes, arabidopsis seeds [a self-pollinating annual sometimes called thale cress] and silkworm eggs to the surface of the Moon. The eggs will hatch into silkworms, which can produce carbon dioxide, while the potatoes and seeds emit oxygen through photosynthesis. Together, they can establish a simple ecosystem on the Moon," Zhang Yuanxun, chief designer of the container, </span><a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/china-will-be-carrying-insects-and-plants-to-the-surface-of-the-moon-this-year"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the Chongqing Morning Post.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CLEP’s chief aim with the ecosystem is to study the effects of lunar gravity on insects and plants. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The moon’s gravity measures 0.16 </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">g</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. In other words, items on the moon will only weigh about 16 percent what they do on Earth. While an 84 percent weight loss may be enticing in theory, “microgravity,” as near-weightless environments are called, has been shown to have negative health effects for humans.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to a 2001 </span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/your_body_six_month_in_space_11_18_15_0.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by NASA’s Human Research Program, “Without gravity working on your body, your bones lose minerals, with density dropping at over 1 percent per month.” </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Further, according to a </span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/64249main_ffs_factsheets_hbp_atrophy.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">by the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, “astronauts experience up to a 20 percent loss of muscle mass on space flights lasting five to 11 days.” Significant liver damage was also </span><a href="http://www.cuanschutztoday.org/mice-flown-space-show-nascent-liver-damage-says-cu-anschutz-researcher/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">discovered</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in mice that were aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, and astronauts </span><a href="http://www.cuanschutztoday.org/mice-flown-space-show-nascent-liver-damage-says-cu-anschutz-researcher/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">have been known</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to return to Earth with diabetes-like symptoms.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though longer-term health effects of lunar gravity are still unknown, the Chang’e mission is thought to be a potential first step toward a long-discussed </span><a href="https://futurism.com/esas-plan-for-a-moon-village-is-slowly-starting-to-come-together/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">lunar base</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A possible replacement for the International Space Station, which is slated to be </span><a href="https://futurism.com/esas-plan-for-a-moon-village-is-slowly-starting-to-come-together/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">decommissioned</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in 2024, the European Space Agency’s </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amYK5voqLSk&feature=youtu.be"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Moon Village</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">currently has the support of 22 ESA member states and a pledged $10.77 billion in funds. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We have been living in low-Earth orbit for the last 17 years on board a space station and we are on our journey to Mars for the first human mission," ESA's Piero Messina told AFP </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4928962/Moon-village-stop-Mars-ESA.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">last year.</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> "In between, we believe that there is an opportunity to create a permanent... sustainable presence on the surface of the Moon."</span></p>
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