Cotton Moon

Cotton Moon

Jennifeer Randal, Reporter

The cotton seeds taken up to the moon by China’s Chang’e-4 mission have sprouted successfully. This marks the first time that biological matter has grown successfully on the moon. Plants have grown from space crafts in the past but never on the moon itself. This is a significant step towards further space exploration. The next step in Chang’e-4’s mission is to explore the far side of the moon. 

Being able to grow food from the moon would be a huge step for going to mars, which would take 2 in a half years. If astronauts can grow food in space, they won’t need to come back down to earth to resupply as much. 

Some are worried about “contaminating the moon” but the scientist in charge of Chang’e-4 argue that it is not much of a problem since there is still debris and containers of human waste left behind from the Apollo astronauts.  

Buds have now grown on the cotton seeds and soon there will be more naturally grown food and cotton on the moon.