China has managed to have a seed sprout on the moon for the first time. A small cotton plant has germinated in a tube prepared for this purpose aboard the Chang'e 4 probe, the first to land on the hidden side of our satellite in the history of space exploration. These plants were not the first to grow in space: as some zinnias from a team from NASA had already bloomed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016. Before that, they had also grown peas, wheat, and other green leafy vegetables. The astronauts of the orbital platform also ate a rich lettuce salad that was grown in a microgravity environment. However, as scientists at Chongqing University (southeast China) have explained, this is the first successful biosphere experiment on the Moon. The Chang'e 4 probe, which on January 3 landed on the dark side of the moon, took with it cotton, rapeseed, potato, and arabidopsis seeds (a model plant for experiments), as well as fruit fly eggs and some yeasts to create a simple mini-biosphere, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The goal was to test agricultural capacity in an extreme environment, crucial for future long-term space missions, such as a colony on the Moon or the conquest of Mars. The images sent by Chang'e 4 showed a cotton bud that had grown successfully, the only seed that has managed to germinate so far. Source - https://www.freshplaza.com