[quote]Chinese astronauts are preparing to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing, state media reported.
Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an "ecological life support system", a 300 cubic metre cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions, Xinhua news agency said Monday.
The system, which relies on plants and algae, is "expected to be used in extra-terrestrial bases on the moon or Mars", the report said.
Participants in the experiment could "harvest fresh vegetables for meals", Xinhua quoted Deng Yibing, a researcher at Beijing's Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Centre, as saying.
"Chinese astronauts may get fresh vegetables and oxygen supplies by gardening in extra-terrestrial bases in the future," the report said, adding that the experiment was the first of its kind in China.
China has said it will land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time next year, as part of an ambitious space programme that includes a long-term plan for a manned moon landing.
The Asian superpower has been ramping up its manned space activities as the United States, long the leader in the field, has scaled back some of its programmes, such as retiring its iconic space shuttle fleet.
In its last white paper on space, China said it was working towards landing a man on the moon -- a feat so far only achieved by the United States, most recently in 1972 -- although it did not give a time frame.
China's first astronaut Yang Liwei said last month that Chinese astronauts may start a branch of China's ruling Communist Party in space, state media reported.
"If we establish a party branch in space, it would also be the 'highest' of its kind in the world," Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.
The astronaut was launched into space and orbited the earth aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in 2003.[/quote]
Source
[url]http://www.afp.com/en/news/topstories/china-prepares-grow-vegetables-mars[/url]
This is really cool, imagine sharing a meal with someone
on the fucking moon
can you even imagine that
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;38699977]This is really cool, imagine sharing a meal with someone
on the fucking moon
can you even imagine that[/QUOTE]
Mars as well.
Regardless, if we have a colony up there before I die, that'd be cool.
Just having some sort of station/building on another celestial body is just mindblowing and a huge step in the right direction.
First the Voyager news and now this, great week for science! :v:
[QUOTE=ejonkou;38700041]Just having some sort of station/building on another celestial body is just mindblowing[/QUOTE]
Though it would probably end up being about the size of the admin building for [URL="http://i.imgur.com/hnwc4.jpg"]Kenyan Antarctic Territory.[/URL]
[QUOTE=SatansSin;38699982]Mars as well.
Regardless, if we have a colony up there before I die, that'd be cool.[/QUOTE]If SpaceX built a working spacecraft (Dragon) and it's launcher in less than what is it now, 10 years, I bet we can have a mars colony before the end of this century.
China is doing everything nowdays.
There's a reason it's called the red planet.
[B]China will grow larger[/B]
[QUOTE=mac338;38700744]There's a reason it's called the red planet.
[B]China will grow larger[/B][/QUOTE]
It's not air you'd be breathing in Mars, it's 100% pure concentrated COMMUNISM
[QUOTE=mac338;38700744]There's a reason it's called the red planet.
[B]China will grow larger[/B][/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts-zbszyQ7w[/media]
[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;38700760]It's not air you'd be breathing in Mars, it's 100% pure concentrated COMMUNISM[/QUOTE]
FACT: No dissidents have ever left Mars alive.
The abundance of carbon dioxide probably plays pretty well towards this. The "soil" is probably pretty crappy and I can't imagine the growing season being very good I guess beggars can'y be choosers when it comes to extraterrestrial argriculture. Would be cool as shit if bioengineers would breed vegetables and plantlife that were ideally suited for offworld atmosphere environments.
[QUOTE]The astronaut was launched into space and orbited the earth aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in 2003.[/QUOTE]
If they're only at this stage how can we expect them to achieve this in our lifetime?
Please please let this spark another space race. Science needs it.
I hope humanity can go to mars together as a species, not as competing nations.
Competition drives innovation, always has always will. I mean believe me I'd like the same but odds seem low.
[QUOTE=Winters;38702406]Competition drives innovation, always has always will. I mean believe me I'd like the same but odds seem low.[/QUOTE]
That's why we need aliens. Not powerful enough to threaten us, but still there. A distant, unknown race, something to unite us is mutual distrust, and perhaps fear.
Or, yeah, Space Race II: Electric Boogaloo, would work.
[QUOTE=PN_Redux;38702274]If they're only at this stage how can we expect them to achieve this in our lifetime?[/QUOTE]
It took less than a human lifetime to go from the invention of the aeroplane to landing on the moon.
Funding and dedication can do most anything.
[QUOTE=AJisAwesome15;38700760]It's not air you'd be breathing in Mars, it's 100% pure concentrated COMMUNISM[/QUOTE]
You know how people say that Communism would only work at this point by giving them a "blank paper" so to say, a empty planet to start over from? Damn straight we can make communism work.
Outside the influence of capitalism and inviduals that seek to disuse the system of the people.
[QUOTE=PN_Redux;38702274]If they're only at this stage how can we expect them to achieve this in our lifetime?[/QUOTE]
They are talking about the specific astronaut...
Since then they launched several more people to space, probes to the moon, and have a very basic but working space station in orbit.
They're sending up a lunar lander in 2013.
Things like this Mars thing won't take place until at least 2030.
They are the only nation as I know that actually has tested the concept of freaking [B]MAGLEV ASSITED LAUNCH[/B]
[img]http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2007/Maglevspacelaunch.gif[/img]
[url]http://phys.org/news91272157.html[/url]
The got their little shuttle thing just like the US
[img]http://www.strategycenter.net/imgLib/20071217_02.jpg[/img]
For having sent the first person up space just 9 years ago. They've come pretty far.
[B]HYDROPONICS GODDAMMIT.[/B]
IT doesn't use soil, it's easy to do, you can store the nutrients in powder or liquid form.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;38703433][B]HYDROPONICS GODDAMMIT.[/B]
IT doesn't use soil, it's easy to do, you can store the nutrients in powder or liquid form.[/QUOTE]
Aquaponics.
[editline]4th December 2012[/editline]
Basically a fish tank with a farm attached. Breed tilapia and vegetables.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;38701379]The abundance of carbon dioxide probably plays pretty well towards this. The "soil" is probably pretty crappy and I can't imagine the growing season being very good I guess beggars can'y be choosers when it comes to extraterrestrial argriculture. Would be cool as shit if bioengineers would breed vegetables and plantlife that were ideally suited for offworld atmosphere environments.[/QUOTE]
One plant; Lichen
Lichens were tested under mars-like conditions except their wrongly predicted high-radiation Mars. Now that they know that Lichens don't need to hide from radiation they could just plant them fucking everywhere.
I would love to subscribe myself for the first human colony on a different planet and die due to some unknown desease or unforseen circumstances.
So they plan to live on Mars eh? Imagine that.
Everything will be Made in Mars
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