China has became the first country to have grown two cotton leaves on the moon, when its?Chang'e-4 spacecraft?landed on the lunar surface on 3rd January 2019 on the far side.
But that's not all the the Chinese wanted to grow or send to the moon, as?Xie Gengxin, from Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University, who led the scientific experiments of the mission recently revealed in a bunch of scientific papers.
Chongqing University
While this isn't the first time plants have grown in space (astronauts have grown plants in lower-earth orbit on the International Space Station), however, this instance did mark the first time a seed sprouted while being on the moon.
If growing cotton leaves on the lunar surface doesn't sound astonishing enough, you'd be surprised to know that Xie Gengxin and his team of Chinese researchers was also planning to send small species of tortoise to the moon. However, mission limitations didn't permit them to do so, eventually.
CLEP/CNSA
"The weight of the Chang'e-4 probe demanded that the weight (of the payload) can't exceed three kilograms," Xie was quoted as saying by the IEEE Spectrum magazine recently.
He further revealed that the biosphere was installed in the spacecraft two months ahead of the launch and would stay in space for a whole month before it could land.
He says, "Even though it is very meaningful to choose tortoise, the oxygen inside the payload can only be used for about 20 days for turtles."
Xie is working on sending larger biology payloads on future lunar missions that could allow more animals to be sent to moon.