Image Credit: NASA
One often comes across the saying ‘grow a plant, to save this planet’. However we’re now entering the future where the saying would be, ‘grow a plant off this planet, to save humanity’. You might not grasp the meaning at first but it is indeed quite profound. It’s the act that may save the human race from extinction several centuries from today. How? Well its quite simple, if one wants to make any planet even remotely habitable to humans, it is very essential to grow plants there first. Plants are going to be integral to closed habitats which we aim to build on the Moon, Mars and may be even Asteroids!
Scientists have been growing plants on the International Space Station for quite sometime now and that’s why we dare to accomplish this mission on other rocky planetary bodies. The wave has begun. You can condemn it, support it or just be a spectator to the beginning of the greatest endeavor of man; but you cannot ignore it. Here’s why: NASA is looking for Space Science enthusiasts from around the world to crowd source ground control experiments for their Plants on the Moon project.
One has the chance to be a part of something that may well go down in history; the image of a plant growing on the moon! Watch this space for more on how plants are going to affect Space travel and terraforming.
Also see:
- NASA Lunar Plant Growth Chamber (Plants on the Moon)
- Tarun Wadhwa, “NASA’s Next Frontier: Growing Plants On The Moon” (Forbes, 11 November 2013).