NASA has announced plans to send astronauts to the Moon to grow plants, hoping to see flora bloom on the lunar surface. The project is part of NASA’s Artemis III exploration plan, which includes three new experiments. One of them, called the “Lunar Effects On Agricultural Flora” (LEAF), will study how lunar conditions affect plant growth.
LEAF’s goal is to understand the potential of using plants grown on the Moon for human nutrition and life support in lunar missions and beyond. This isn’t the first exploration into lunar agriculture. In 2022, NASA demonstrated that plants can grow in lunar soil by cultivating seeds in lunar soil samples brought back to Earth. Then in 2019, China’s Chang’e space program managed to sprout cotton, rapeseed, and potato seeds on the Moon in a protected chamber, though these sprouts didn’t survive for long.
Apart from NASA, Lunaria One, an Australian startup, is also planning to transport and cultivate plants on the Moon. For this mission, scientists from Australian National University, Queensland University of Technology and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology are joining forces. Lunaria One co-founder Graham Dorrington has described the project as a small step in support of NASA’s Artemis program.
NASA plans to kick-start the LEAF project in 2026 and will choose three new astronauts for the Artemis III exploration program. The agency has not yet disclosed the names of these astronauts but has committed to making a historic first by landing the first woman, the first person of colour, and their first international partner astronaut on the Moon.
In summary, the idea of cultivating plants on the Moon may seem like a sci-fi fantasy, but it’s part of NASA’s real strategy for human habitation in space. These horticultural experiments will provide crucial data on how lunar conditions affect plant growth. This information could eventually support long-term life support plans on the Moon and beyond, contributing significantly to the future of space exploration and habitation.
