The Chinese government is planning to grow vegetables on Mars and the Moon after researchers deemed preliminary testing in Beijing a success.
Xinhua, China's state media agency, reported that four kinds of vegetables were grown in an 'ecological life-support system that relies on plants and algae,' which allows for astronauts to produce their own stocks of food, water and air while on space missions.
'Participants in the experiment could harvest fresh vegetables for meals in space,' said Deng Yibing, a researcher at Beijing's Chinese Astronaut Research & Training Centre.
The report even suggests that the experiment could lead to vegetable production and subsequent farms on alien planets. 'Chinese astronauts may get fresh vegetables and oxygen supplies by gardening on extra-terrestrial bases in the future,' said the report.
The experiment is part of an ambitious new space programme set out by the Chinese government, with the nation planning to land an exploratory craft on the Moon for the first time next year.
