Adelaide researchers will be key players in an out-of-this-world mission to grow plants on the Moon and return them to Earth for the first time.
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The Artemis 3 mission is aiming to return mankind to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years in 2026, and it will have some very special passengers.
Seeds, including red and green varieties of brassica, duckweed and thale cress, will be sent up to be grown in an isolated atmosphere chamber.
Plant growth and development data will be collected to help scientists understand how agriculture can be used to support future deep space exploration.
It is also hoped the findings will enhance on-Earth agricultural efficiency and sustainability.
The project has been branded Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora or LEAF, and the partners includes a group from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, headquartered at the University of Adelaide.
Other partners include Space Lab Technologies, La Trobe University, the NASA Kennedy Space Center, the United States Department of Agriculture, University of Colorado Boulder, and Purdue University, and the University of Western Australia.
An associate professor of Plant Synthetic Biology at the University of Adelaide and P4S chief investigator Jenny Mortimer said seeds sent to the Moon will germinate in an enclosed capsule and be remotely monitored for three to five days.
Dr Mortimer and a post-doctorate researcher in Adelaide, as well as researchers from LaTrobe University, will take notes on the plants' size and morphology, while sensors will measure CO2 and oxygen levels in relation to photosynthesis and respiration.
Once returned to Earth, genetic and metabolic analysis of individual cells in the plants will be undertaken.
"The sample return, for me, will be the really exciting thing," Dr Mortimer said.
"Techonology has developed to such a point now that even though they will be tiny samples, we will be able to gather a huge amount of information.
"We will have an identical chamber on Earth growing the same plants for the same amount of time, so we get a pretty good idea of what the impact of lunar growth is.
"As part of Artemis, the plan is for humans to return over and over again to the lunar surface and for longer amounts of time.
"As part of that, we're going to have to support the increasing number of humans living and working in space.
"I would hope we'd end up having more permanent plant growth facilities first on the space stations, then eventually longer term structures on the surface of the moon and then maybe some vertical farm type system for growing plants in the lead up to crewed missions to Mars in the future."
Dr Mortimer said while it is hoped LEAF will assist future space exploration, she was excited about the impact the project could have on agriculture on Earth.
"Space is wonderful and exciting, but the biggest reason I'm working on this is thinking about sustainability here on Earth," she said.
"When you are trying to grow plants in these very controlled environments you have to think about sustainability in a very detailed way - where every bit of water is coming from, every bit of oxygen, the power you're using, the carbon dioxide, what are you going to do with any waste?
"It costs so much to get everything there and there are so few resources there that you have to make the most of it.
"I think it's a really good way of creating solutions for on-earth farming, particularly closed environment agriculture.
"How can we develop crops that grow really well in closed environment ag, and can we think about the cost and sustainability of doing it so that it makes sense."
The Adelaide P4S centre is the headquarters of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space and has been up and running since January .
It has partners including NASA and the German Space Agency and will employ about 200 researchers - including engineers, plant scientists, lawyers and food scientists - across five University hubs across Australia.
More than 50 will be based in Adelaide.
P4S director and University of Adelaide professor Matthew Gilliham said the LEAF project was a perfect representation of P4S's quest to assist in "delivering a new frontier for humanity".
"LEAF has been made possible by bringing together world-leading skillsets in engineering, plant science, molecular analysis, and space logistics," he said.
"The learnings and technologies we gain by growing plants in a completely closed loop, as we must do in space, will provide new options for improving sustainable plant production and processing here on Earth."
The LEAF project is one of three scientific programs selected so far for the Artemis 3 mission and will be set up near the lunar south pole.
