Christian Sallaberger wants to build a greenhouse on the moon. “Tang and freeze-dried ice cream don’t really cut it for real missions,” said Sallaberger, president and chief executive officer of Canadensys Aerospace. His company is taking the first tentative steps on a project that will one day, he hopes, grow fresh fruit and vegetables on the lunar surface.
In late 2024, working with researchers at the University of Guelph, Canadensys started putting barley and oat plants to the test in conditions similar to those likely to be found in a greenhouse on the moon. The plants survived a simulated night, where temperatures were brought down to the low single digits Celsius to mimic the harsh conditions a lunar greenhouse would have to withstand during the night. In another experiment in a hypobaric chamber to test a plant tray and nutrient disinfection system, researchers successfully grew barley and oat plants at an atmospheric pressure half that of Earth’s.
The ability to grow fresh produce on the moon is crucial for planned human exploration of the solar system—but it’s a gargantuan task. The moon has almost no atmosphere to protect astronauts from cosmic radiation and the temperature swings from 120°C in the day to -130°C at night. Lunar nights are also two weeks long, meaning plants have to survive for two weeks in an unthinkably cold, dark desert.
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