Greenhouse on the Moon?

April 5th, 2009

Odyssey Moon, a team competing for a $30 million purse in the Google Lunar X Prize contest, officially joined forces with another private space firm Friday to deliver the first greenhouse to the moon as part the “Lunar Oasis” project.

“Imagine a bright flower on a plant in a crystal clear growth chamber on the surface of the Moon, with the full Earth rising above the Moonscape behind it; these are the ideas that got me interested in space,” said Jane Poynter, president and founder of Paragon Space Development Corporation.

Paragon isn’t new to growing plants, or even raising animals in space. Paragon previously bred the first animals through complete life cycles in space, and grew the first aquatic plant in space. This would be the first plant grown from a seed outside of Earth, however. An interesting possibility and a step forward in the idea of living a future somewhere other than Earth. With actual food instead of living off the top diet pill of the future, or a cartoon idea of “steak in a pill”.

“The first plant to grow from seed and complete its life cycle on another world will be a significant step in the expansion of life beyond the Earth,” McKay noted. “The sooner we do it the better.”