Lunar agriculture is a business that aims to reach the equator by the end of the century

The human dream is to return to the Moon, but what about staying alive? Jose Maria Ortega Hernandez, the general coordinator for the 'Green Moon’ project, told this newspaper that "This is our next step if you want to go to Mars." Space race 2.0 has prompted both the major space agencies and private investors back to the stars.

Water on the Moon is a prime target because of its existence. This is a vital resource and the nearest celestial body to Earth has it on about 40,000 kilometers. A few Malaga university students were curious and asked the question, "Can it be grown there?" Ortega-Hernandez says that in 2015, a competition was held called "Lab to Moon" (Laboratorio A la Luna). It involved testing a lunar lander and a scientific experiment.

The contest offered almost 25 million euros to the winner of the contest. They would pay 500m to the chosen company and send the data back to Earth. The award was not won by anyone, but the 28-year old Malaga aeronautical engineer and mechanic found his own way: the 'Green Moon Project. This combination of planetary geology and plant biology is a unique adventure in aerospace engineering.

He explains that there was no prior experimentation to show how plants can grow in lunar gravity. China was able to send seeds to the Earth satellite in 2019 and then plant them on the dark side. He says, "It is important to understand how the crop will perform under such harsh circumstances."

Ortega-Hernandez's team reached out to the Chongqing University Space Exploration Center after this milestone. This center has collaborated with China Space Agency in research on extraterrestrial ecosystems and astrobiology, as well as the design of its space exploration robots. They came together in 2019 because they had the same resources as Spain, but also the same level of technical and scientific knowledge. His progress is visible. He adds that plants are not ready to be grown on Mars or the Moon, so it is necessary to create conditions similar to Earth to allow them to germinate.

The project's experts create a test tube, or test tube, in which the lunar regolith would be - in this instance it has been simulated with an Earth satellite surface composition. It includes small aluminum beams from aerospace, and also several O2 and thermal light sensors.

An Intel Edison board will monitor everything and the code was developed using the Arduino system. It has open hardware bases. To promote photosynthesis, several colored LEDs have been installed (blue-red and far-red). The trapdoor allows the seed to be released onto the wet sediment upon reaching the Moon.

Tests in the Canary Islands

The 'Green Moon Project team, which is eager to travel to outer space has completed its first test in the Canary Islands. Ortega-Hernandez says that Lanzarote contains tubes made from lava, similar to the Moon's. "This would make Lanzarote a great place for space gardens and protect them against cosmic radiation." His calculations show that the satellite could have the first greenhouses by the middle of this century.

He said that "the first inklings were positive" but he prefers to be realistic in his expectations. "We are not going to view large estates, and less so in short term." NASA's 2025 goal for returning to the Moon is its new horizon. It is also planned to send a robot rover capable of searching for ice in 2023. It will land at the Moon's south pole in Nobile Crater. The robot is expected to confirm that there is frozen water below the surface. This would be a significant step towards lunar agriculture and possibly fuels for travel to Mars.