Posted on 01/04/2018 8:37:28 PM PST by BenLurkin
The mission will consist of a relay orbiter being launched aboard a Long March 5 rocket in June of 2018. This relay will assume orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange Point, followed by the launch of the lander and rover about six months later. In addition to an advanced suite of instruments for studying the lunar surface, the lander will also be carrying an aluminum alloy container filled with seeds and insects.
“The container will send potatoes, arabidopsis seeds and silkworm eggs to the surface of the Moon. The eggs will hatch into silkworms, which can produce carbon dioxide, while the potatoes and seeds emit oxygen through photosynthesis. Together, they can establish a simple ecosystem on the Moon.”
The mission will also be the first time that a mission is sent to an unexplored region on the far side of the Moon. This region is none other than the South Pole-Aitken Basin, a vast impact region in the southern hemisphere. Measuring roughly 2,500 km (1,600 mi) in diameter and 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) deep, it is the single-largest impact basin on the Moon and one of the largest in the Solar System.
This basin is also source of great interest to scientists, and not just because of its size. In recent years, it has been discovered that the region also contains vast amounts of water ice. These are thought to be the results of impacts by meteors and asteroids which left water ice that survived because of how the region is permanently shadowed. Without direct sunlight, water ice in these craters has not been subject to sublimation and chemical dissociation
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Come on, what could go wrong? /s
Loads of stupid people out there.
I overhead one of them “How is it negative degrees ? You can’t have less than zero! Duh!”
Well, plants and insects are part of it.... What about water, atmosphere, warmth, fertile soil? With the right building, people could grow plants just about anywhere given the controlled environment.
I think what maybe interesting is the reaction of the bugs. Will the insects be able to adapt to less gravity? How will they fair outside of the Earth’s geomagnetic forces?
Willzyx
Seems like an awfully expensive way to go about killing bugs and plants.
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