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China's moon lander sprouted a plant, but now it's dead
cnet ^ | January 15, 2019 2:28 PM PST | Amanda Kooser

Posted on 01/15/2019 3:46:21 PM PST by BenLurkin

The China National Space Agency's Chang'e 4 lander is exploring the mysterious side of our lunar neighbor that faces away from Earth. It also had some unusual guests on board and -- in a first for the moon -- one of them sprouted.

Xinhua announced the sprout Tuesday and posted a series of progress images covering the course of nine days and showing a seedling reaching up inside the habitat. The experiment didn't last long

A team from Chongqing University in China developed a sealed biosphere habitat stocked with seeds, fruit fly eggs and yeast that it hoped would create a mini-ecosystem. The cotton seed was the only one to sprout. The experiment also contained potato and oilseed rape seeds.

The experiment's chief designer, Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University, told Xinhua that life inside the canister would not survive the lander's first lunar night, which started on Sunday. The moon's nighttime period lasts for about two Earth weeks.

The temperature plummets during the lunar night. NASA says the moon's temperatures near its equator can dive to -238 Fahrenheit (-150 Celsius). Chang'e 4 is located in the Von Karman crater in the moon's southern hemisphere. The lander is in sleep mode during the lunar night.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: china; moon; redchina; runarrander; themoon
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1 posted on 01/15/2019 3:46:21 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

...roops...


2 posted on 01/15/2019 3:48:48 PM PST by Doogle (( USAF.68-73....8th TFW Ubon Thailand....never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: BenLurkin

The experiment’s chief designer, Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University, told Xinhua that life inside the canister would not survive the lander’s first lunar night, which started on Sunday.


under the communist system, CYA...……………………………..

Xinhua, you are fired.


3 posted on 01/15/2019 3:52:50 PM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: BenLurkin

This will not stop China from claiming the moon as their national territory.

Can’t wait to hear about how in the 6th century some Chinese guy did some random thing that makes such a claim legitimate.

(This is me rolling my eyes at the arrogance of the Chinese)


4 posted on 01/15/2019 3:54:28 PM PST by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: BenLurkin

The radiation hitting it must be intense.


5 posted on 01/15/2019 3:55:05 PM PST by doorgunner69
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To: Doogle

At reast their runar rander works.


6 posted on 01/15/2019 3:55:09 PM PST by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: doorgunner69

The problem with Chinese lunar landers is that after touchdown an hour later you want to take off and do it again.


7 posted on 01/15/2019 3:58:10 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: MeganC

...it’s on the utra side (the dark side)....


8 posted on 01/15/2019 3:58:40 PM PST by Doogle (( USAF.68-73....8th TFW Ubon Thailand....never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: PeterPrinciple

..never to be heard or seen again


9 posted on 01/15/2019 3:59:37 PM PST by Doogle (( USAF.68-73....8th TFW Ubon Thailand....never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: BenLurkin

It’s hard to get excited about an unmanned probe, even on the dark side of the moon. Wake me up when they send a man to the moon. Given the computer-assisted guidance systems developed since Neil Armstrong’s moon walk, this should be much easier to do today. And yet - despite the hoopla - the Chinese have yet to replicate what NASA did during the Flintstone era of computing.


10 posted on 01/15/2019 4:01:48 PM PST by Zhang Fei (They can have my pitbull when they pry his cold dead jaws off my ass.)
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To: BenLurkin

This reminds me of a song by Pink Floyd.


11 posted on 01/15/2019 4:03:45 PM PST by wjcsux (The hyperventilating of the left means we are winning! (Tagline courtesy of Laz.))
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To: BenLurkin

What they need is a solar powered mobile cement factory that roams the lunar surface, scoops up regolith, and craps out structural building blocks of known engineering properties. Water might be the limiting factor here.


12 posted on 01/15/2019 4:10:54 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: BenLurkin
The Chinese should have sent some of these...


13 posted on 01/15/2019 4:32:19 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: doorgunner69

the radiation hitting that little rape seed will turn it into an Audrey (Little Shop of Horrors)


14 posted on 01/15/2019 4:37:05 PM PST by faithhopecharity (“Politicians arent born, they’re excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: BenLurkin

The cotton seed was the only one to sprout
= = =

So the Chinese want to grow cotton.

And then import ‘folks’ to pick it.

RASSSIST!!!


15 posted on 01/15/2019 4:39:16 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (You know that I am full of /S)
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To: BenLurkin

we’ll see if their lander wakes up after lunar night.


16 posted on 01/15/2019 4:40:37 PM PST by Rio
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To: SpaceBar

If you have a furnace that is hot enough...


17 posted on 01/15/2019 4:56:07 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: SunkenCiv

*ping*


18 posted on 01/15/2019 4:56:44 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
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To: BenLurkin
A team from Chongqing University in China developed a sealed biosphere habitat stocked with seeds, fruit fly eggs and yeast that it hoped would create a mini-ecosystem. The cotton seed was the only one to sprout. The experiment also contained potato and oilseed rape seeds.

Is this the formula for Godzilla?

19 posted on 01/15/2019 5:39:44 PM PST by yesthatjallen
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To: Zhang Fei
"And yet - despite the hoopla - the Chinese have yet to replicate what NASA did during the Flintstone era of computing."

In fairness, neither has NASA, at least in terms of human lunar landings.

20 posted on 01/15/2019 6:11:27 PM PST by buckalfa (I was so much older then, but I'am younger than that now.)
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