China’s First Aerospace Rice Crop: Rice Seeds Sprouted on the Moon Aboard Chang’e 5

China's First Aerospace Rice Crop: Rice Seeds Sprouted on the Moon Aboard Chang'e 5

After 22 days of the mission, Chang’e 5 has achieved its main goal of bringing back samples of lunar soil for the first time in 43 years, but there were also seeds in a special container on board the mission , recovered upon the arrival of the returner last year. December 17.

Orchid, alfalfa and oat seeds were also sent.

CLEP

The Chinese lunar research program (CLEP) has shown sprouting rice seeds upon their return from the Moon aboard the recent Chang’e 5 mission. The deployment of the mutagenesis experiment in deep space is an important milestone in improving the harvests, according to CLEP.

After being exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity, some seeds can mutate and produce higher yields and better quality when planted back on Earth, although it is not possible to predict whether or how seeds sent to space will eventually mutate. they will do it. The answer is only revealed when they return to Earth to plant them and continue their cultivation .

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With the development of China’s space program, researchers at the Lanzhou Institute of Pharmaceutical and Livestock Sciences have been searching for quality forage seeds with new space technologies, hoping to reduce China’s dependence on imports.

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