An Australian-led project to grow plants on the moon has secured a ride on a lunar mission scheduled for takeoff in 2025.
Plants and seeds ensconced in a carefully engineered capsule will make the 380,000km trip aboard an Intuitive Machines lunar lander.
The mission – the Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (Aleph) – is one of the first Australian-led moon missions and is being led by startup Lunaria One, in collaboration with research institutions, non-profits and industry partners.
Lauren Fell, director of Lunaria One, said while producing something “living, fresh and green” for astronauts to eat on the moon – and then Mars – was among the mission’s ultimate aims, the first test was whether the plants could survive. They would need to endure lengthy storage at the launch pad, intense vibrations during lift-off, and the unique lunar conditions, including temperatures ranging from 120oC to 130oC below zero.
“We’re not growing a full garden yet,” she said.
“As we look towards having a more sustainable human presence on the moon, and then Mars, we need to develop ways of sending things up there that can grow.”
Dr Caitlin Byrt, a bioengineering professor and plant scientist at the Australian National University, was advising Aleph on plants that might tolerate the journey.
“We have to understand how plant life, or photosynthetic life in general, can be resilient enough to go through this journey of extremes, to be in this stasis, and then to be able to actually grow again,” she said.
Resurrection plants had already adapted to desert environments, including extremely dry, hot and cold conditions, she said. On Earth, they could dry down to 10% of their ideal water content, sit on “pause” for a long period of time, and grow again when water was available.
Innovating for space had the potential to reap broader benefits, such as learning how to propagate fresh and nutritious food after a disaster or extreme climatic event, Byrt said.
“If we can engineer something that can survive a trip to the moon, then we can engineer something that can survive some of the most extreme challenges that we’re facing on Earth,” she said.
In 2024, Intuitive Machines became the first private company to successfully land a spacecraft on the surface of the moon. Lunaria One’s payload was to travel on the company’s third moon mission.
Aleph was backed by a $3.6m grant from the Australian Space Agency.
Enrico Palermo, head of the agency, said: “Understanding which plants to grow in space – and how best to grow them – will play a key role in human space exploration in the coming years, while giving us important scientific lessons to apply back on Earth.”
Fell said public participation in the Australian-led mission was a priority.
“We’ve got lots of different activities, engineering challenges, other plant-based experiments that people can have a go at in their home and contribute to the science.”
