The Chinese space agency spacecraft Chang’e became the first to make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon in January 2019. The moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate that it orbits our planet, so the far side - or the "dark side" - is never visible from Earth.

Scientists from Chongqing University sent an 18-centimetre (seven-inch) bucket-like container holding air, water and soil in a mini lunar biosphere experiment aboard the Chang’e lander.

Inside are cotton, potato, and arabidopsis seeds - a plant of the mustard family - as well as fruit fly eggs and yeast.

Images sent back by the probe show a cotton sprout has grown well, but so far none of the other plants has taken, the university said.