BEIJING - 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.