Odyssey Moon, a NewSpace company trying to find ways to turn profits by exploring the Moon, is teaming with Paragon Space Development Corporation to deliver a greenhouse to the lunar surface. The goal of the project will be to study the development of the plant inside the greenhouse in lunar gravity, about one-sixth Earth gravity. The project will be in conjunction with OM's attempt to win the Google Lunar X-Prize Challenge.
Growing plants beyond Earth, of course, is essential to a human expansion into space, and has already been done in microgravity aboard space stations, with interesting results. By studying the development of a plant from seed to maturity in lunar gravity and comparing that with what happens in microgravity and normal Earth gravity scientists will be able to begin to tease out the role gravity plays in life.
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