Prepare for the vines on the moon. This plant belongs to the group of privileged species that will travel to space in order to take root in our satellite. Will life be able to spread over the moon? What would a wine made up there taste like? The first thing will be to understand what the project consists of «Green Moon ». Let's see it.
A group of researchers has presented in Marbella the project “Green moon”. He did it within the framework of the second congress on space and underwater tourism, SUTUS. In short, the main idea is to grow certain plants on the moon. The chosen ones are tomato, lettuce, radish, carrot in addition to the vine.
But this is not just any vine. The first of the vines on the moon that will come in the next few years is the vine of La Geria de Lanzarote. This Canarian variety is interesting due to its ability to grip on volcanic soils. It is the one that promises the most.
An exceptional team
The team is coordinated by aeronautical engineer José María Ortega. The main characteristic of the group is its multidisciplinarity. Thus, we can say that they integrate it astrophysicists (Jorge Plan) Y planetary geologists (Jesus Martinez y Fernando Alberquilla placeholder image). They also have plant biologists as Eva Sanchez y Juan Hernández.
They will send their first seeds to the moon in four years within the framework of a chinese mission who contacted them in 2019. José María Ortega explains that it is very expensive to send terrestrial food to space missions. Therefore, the most profitable and interesting thing would be to cultivate them outside the land.
That the vines on the moon grow healthy and strong depends on several factors. The main variable to take into account is how the plants will behave in a gravity so reduced. Others are the temperature, luminosity and moisture. In order to avoid the pitfalls of the ground, they have used a rather curious method. Researchers have grown what will be the next vines on the Moon in other rocky, basaltic soil. Where can we find this one?
Canarian soil for future vines on the moon
Well, in the Canary Islands! After signing an agreement with the Canary Islands authorities and the UNESCO they have managed to access a substrate of two protected spaces. These are the Timanfaya National Park and Chinijo archipelago. The ultimate goal is to send the plants in four small test tubes within a greenhouse capsule. One of these will transport normal earth while another a soil similar to the one that NASA brought in the Apollo missions.
Two others with Lanzarote soil. One with a higher content of metals and another with a better content. So that they grow vines on the moon they were first treated at the Complutense University of Madrid. In this way they have physical and chemical conditions as similar as possible to those of the moon. Once the trial is closed and before it is sent to space, the researchers will do a simulation in the Canary Islands. Are vines on the moon the future of wine and even the beginning of life on our satellite?
