快猫短视频

THE Japanese are already planning menus for future visitors to the Moon. But
life-support specialists say that lunar agriculture won鈥檛 necessarily be any
easier because of the discovery of water.

鈥淔rom a life-support standpoint, we鈥檇 still have to recycle the water,鈥� says
Don Henniger of NASA鈥檚 Johnson Space Center in Houston. 鈥淏ut the lunar water
could give us more flexibility while we get the systems up and running.鈥� Guy
Fogleman, leader of the advanced human systems technology programme at NASA鈥檚
headquarters in Washington DC, suspects that it may still be easier to irrigate
lunar crops with water shipped from Earth. 鈥淭he level of importance of this
discovery for life support is difficult to say,鈥� he says.

Meanwhile, as part of a government-sponsored plan to develop technology for
activities on the Moon鈥檚 surface, Japanese researchers have produced mature rice
in a record 100 days. They say the rice could supply lunar colonies with three
harvests a year.

Normally, the rice variety known as mutsu-homare takes 160 days to mature.
Koji Otsubo and his colleagues at the Institute for Environmental Science in
Rokkashomura speeded up the process by finding the best growing conditions. 鈥淏y
controlling temperature, light and carbon dioxide density we were able to raise
the rice鈥檚 starch production,鈥� says Otsubo. 鈥淲e suppose the facility could be
used on a lunar base.鈥� The taste is not quite up to the standards of normal
rice, Otsubo admits. 鈥淏ut as it will be growing on the Moon, who can complain?鈥�