London: US scientists are preparing for a possible colonisation of the Moon with a plan to grow vegetables such as brussels sprouts on Earth's only natural satellite.
Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corporation, which has worked with NASA, unveiled plans to land mini-greenhouses on the Moon which would be capable to growing flowers and hardy vegetables from the brassica family, such as sprouts and cabbages.
Brassica has been chosen because and can complete its life cycle in a single lunar night as it goes from seed to flower in just 14 days.
Even as it plans to retire its Space Shuttle fleet at the end next year, the US space programme Nasa has committed returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020, and a manned mission to Mars by 2030.
"Colonising the Moon or Mars seems so far away, but it is important that we do this research now," Jane Poynter, the president of Paragon, was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday.
Paragon announced its plan to safely land a laboratory plant on the lunar surface. The 1.5 ft tall space greenhouse, described as a "Lunar Oasis" is to be launched not before 2012 by Odyssey Moon Ltd, a participant in the Google Lunar X Prize, which will reward any project that can launch, land and operate a rover on the lunar surface, the British paper reported.