NASA has announced that astronauts will cultivate and return lunar grown plants to Earth during a mission that will see humans take their first steps back on the moon after more than 50 years – with Australian researchers involved
NASA’s Artemis III mission, planned for a September 2026 launch, will see astronauts collect plant growth and development data – helping scientists understand the use of plants grown for both human nutrition and life support on the Moon and beyond.
Known as Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora (LEAF), the project will also see the first human steps on the moon by humans in more than 50 years.
A plethora of partners who will pioneer this initiative includes a core group from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S), headquartered at the University of Adelaide.
The project is led by Space Lab Technologies and involves the University of Adelaide, La Trobe University, NASA Kennedy Space Center, all P4S partners, the United States Department of Agriculture, University of Colorado Boulder, and Purdue University – with additional analysis to be conducted by the P4S unit at the University of Western Australia.
“This research will be a pivotal step toward understanding how we might use agriculture in space to support human crews, paving the way for sustained lunar exploration and even missions to Mars,” project lead and Space Lab vice president Christine Escobar says.
Associate professor of plant synthetic biology at the University of Adelaide and P4S chief investigator, Jenny Mortimer, says the mission will explain how plants respond in an off-Earth environment and how well a fully contained environment can be built – that allows them to thrive.
“The data we capture from the mission, both from the lunar surface and what we learn when we analyse the samples upon return, will help us to design the lunar and Martian crops of the future,” she says.
Professor Mathew Lewsey of P4S and the La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food says the seeds sent to the moon will be monitored through a remote camera and grow in an enclosed capsule.
“Our team of scientists will collect data on the plants as they grow on the moon, monitoring their size and morphology, then conduct genetic and metabolic analyses of individual cells when the plants return to Earth,” he says.
“We can then apply this knowledge to improve plant resilience to radiation and other environmental challenges.”