Veggies on the moon

Want to grow up to be an astronaut? Eat your brussels sprouts!

Sound like a trick to get children to eat healthy—albeit unappealing—food. But, it may very well turn out that brussels sprouts will be a very important vegetable on a future lunar base.

Paragon unveiled a mini-greenhouse for growing plants on the moon.

Good timing for lunar growth

As it turns out, brussels sprouts grow from seed to flower in 14 days—or, a single lunar night. And that has caught the attention of scientists trying to figure out how to feed a lunar colony.

And we’re not only talking about growing vegetation on other planets for food.

Flowers, too!

Dr. Chris McKay, a scientist from NASA Ames who had previously proposed sending growing a live rose atop an unmanned Mars rover, is working on the Lunar Oasis Project, a plan to learn how to grow plants on other worlds. Says McKay: “The first plant to grow from seed and complete its life cycle on another world will be a significant step in the expansion of life beyond the Earth. The sooner we do it the better.”

In addition, two companies are working together  (Paragon Space Development Corp. and Odyssey Moon Ltd.) on a project to possibly grow flowers on the  moon by 2014. They’ve even produced a video.