The moon has been around for 4.53 billion years. In all that time, its surface has been absolutely barren of life—other than the 12 human beings who briefly visited the place 50 years ago.
Or at least that’s been true until now. Because the Chinese probe that safely landed on the far side of the moon at the start of the year took along a mini-greenhouse containing seeds of several plants—including, for fans of The Martian, potatoes. Video feed from that greenhouse shows that, on Jan. 12, some of those seeds began to sprout. And now there are some plants, likely cotton plants, growing on the moon.
As scientific experiments go, it’s not telling us a whole lot. The substance the plants are growing in is soil and water from Earth. The container they are in is protected against the extreme heat and cold of the lunar environment. The plants are certainly not exposed to the very, very near-vacuum of the lunar environment. The tiny terrarium is in an 18 cm (about 7 inches) “bucket.” So it’s unclear just how much growing any of these plants can do. Moon-bound Matt Damons should certainly not count on bolstering their food stores with a crop.
Still … it’s cool. At the start of a year in which it seems like everyone is going to the moon, China’s Chang'e 4 probe and its associated collection of rovers and experiments are providing a nice symbolic start to the concept that the moon might in fact be where both plants and people can eventually live.
But they’re going to need a bigger bucket.