Lunar experiments receive praise

China's latest space biology experiment, in which a cotton seedling sprouted on the moon's far side aboard the lunar lander Chang'e 4, is a "significant leap" in life-support technologies for future human space habitation, said a senior US scientist.

A canister on the probe that serves as a biosphere for seeds of cotton, rapeseed, potato and Arabidopsis, as well as fruit fly eggs and yeast, ended its operations as planned, and the data it collected will be "invaluable in improving the experiment and possibly making the moon habitable for humans", Xie Gengxin, chief designer of the experiment, said on Friday.

With the experiment and earlier related efforts, China is leading in the area of bioregenerative life support and space agricultural technologies crucial for long-duration human space exploration, according to Marshall Porterfield, who was director for NASA's space life and physical sciences division from 2012 to 2016.