On January 12, a cotton sprout poked out of the lattice of a planter on the far side of the moon. This comes nine days after the Chinese lander, the Chang’e 4, made history with the first soft landing in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system. The lander’s rover, dubbed Jade Rabbit 2, started watering the seeds on January 3 to see whether the plant could survive in a low-gravity, high-radiation environment. So far, the results look promising.

Plants have been grown in space before, but this marks the first successful biological germination experiment on the moon’s surface, according to Xie Gengxin, dean of the Institute of Advanced Technology at Chongqing University. The 18-centimeter lunar greenhouse also contains potato and rock cress (related to cabbage and mustard) seeds, as well as fruit fly eggs, which Chinese scientists hope will hatch during the rover’s stay on the moon.

While still in its early stages, the experiment represents a critical step toward understanding the viability of growing food in space—a necessary development for long-term space missions and potential human outposts on the moon and other planets. The Chang’e 4 also aims to conduct studies involving the impact of solar wind on the lunar landscape, radio-frequency tests from the basin using a relay satellite, and an investigation into the presence of water at the poles.

Add these efforts to China’s ambitious list of upcoming lunar missions—including the late 2019 launch of Chang’e 5 to collect samples from the near side of the moon (the first since the Soviet Luna samples in ’76) and a 2020 mission to Mars—and it becomes clear that China intends to position itself at the forefront of 21st-century space exploration.

Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said yesterday at a press conference in Beijing that subsequent missions will aim to survey the moon’s south pole to assess the feasibility of a lunar research base constructed out of 3D-printed materials. In a gesture of international collaboration, Wu invited astronauts from around the world to the future Chinese space station, projected to open in 2022.

In the meantime, we’ll keep an eye on how Jade Rabbit’s sprouts and fruit flies fare in the tiny roving greenhouse eight miles down at the base of a crater on the far side of the moon.

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