Eco Factor: Greenhouse designed to grow plants and vegetables on lunar surface.
Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corporation has developed a greenhouse that could be used to grow veggies on the surface of the moon. Referred to as the Lunar Oasis, the greenhouse looks like a bell jar encased in a 1.5-foot tall aluminum frame, which is designed to protect its delicate interiors from launch force and position it safely on the lunar surface.
The greenhouse will be launched into space by Odyssey Moon Ltd., which will not happen until 2012. Once it does take off, it will carry few seeds of Brassica, since the plant goes from a seed to flower in just 14 days, which means it will complete its life cycle in a single lunar night. Though NASA’s manned moon missions are more than a decade away, research has begun to develop greenhouses that can multifunction. Larger versions of such greenhouses will be able to provide food, recycle waste and generate oxygen for the astronauts.
Via: Discovery
