Marrows on Mars: China reveals plans to grow vegetables in extra-terrestrial bases

Experts have completed preliminary tests in a sealed chamber in Beijing

Claim system will provide air, water and food for astronauts on the moon or Mars

Chinese astronauts are preparing plans to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing.



Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an 'ecological life support system', a 300 cubic metre cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions, Xinhua news agency said.



The system, which relies on plants and algae, is 'expected to be used in extra-terrestrial bases on the moon or Mars', the report said.

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Chinese researchers have completed the country's first test of a self contained system that could grow vegetables on the moon or Mars. The system was able to grow four types of vegetable.

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The Chinese experiment grew f our kinds of vegetables in an 'ecological life support system', a 300 cubic metre cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions, Xinhua news agency said.

Participants in the experiment could 'harvest fresh vegetables for meals', Xinhua quoted Deng Yibing, a researcher at Beijing's Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Centre, as saying.



'Chinese astronauts may get fresh vegetables and oxygen supplies by gardening in extra-terrestrial bases in the future,' the report said, adding that the experiment was the first of its kind in China, although other countries have tested such systems.

China has said it will land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time next year, as part of an ambitious space programme that includes a long-term plan for a manned moon landing.



The Asian superpower has been ramping up its manned space activities as the United States, long the leader in the field, has scaled back some of its programmes, such as retiring its iconic space shuttle fleet.



Mount Sharp on Mars, where scientists plan to send Curiosity. Chinese researchers believe they have found a way to grow vegetables on the Red Planet inside sealed 'plant ecosystems'

In its last white paper on space, China said it was working towards landing a man on the moon -- a feat so far only achieved by the United States, most recently in 1972 -- although it did not give a time frame.



China's first astronaut Yang Liwei said last month that Chinese astronauts may start a branch of China's ruling Communist Party in space, state media reported.



'If we establish a party branch in space, it would also be the 'highest' of its kind in the world,' Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.



The astronaut was launched into space and orbited the earth aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in 2003.

US Researchers working on a potential 'space farm'. Chinese officials say they have developed a 300m cabin capable of growing vegetables on the moon or Mars



