N.A.S.A. - Lunar Plant Growth Experiment lyrics

Can humans live and work on the
Moon? Not just visit for
A few days but stay for decades? A first step
In long term presence is to
Send plants as seedlings, they
Can be as sensitive as
Humans to environmental conditions
Sometimes even more so they carry
Genetic material that can
Be damaged by radiation as can that of
Humans they can test the
Lunar environment for us
Acting as a "canary in a coal mine"

If we send plants and they thrive
Then we probably can thriving plants
Are needed for life support
(food, air, water) for colonists and
Plants provide psychological comfort
As the popularity of the
Greenhouses in Antarctica
And on the Space Station show

Good idea, but how can we send plants to
The Moon soon? Hitchhiking thanks to
Google, there are many potential rides to
The moon in the near future
With commercial spacecraft companies
Competing to collect
The Google Lunar X-Prize in 2015

We are constructing a
Small technology demonstration
Unit to study germination of
Plants in lunar gravity and radiation
On the Moon the self-contained
Habitat will have a mass of about
1 kg and would be
A payload on a commercial lunar
Lander – the Moon express lander
Part of the Google Lunar X-prize
Competition after landing in late 2015
Water will be added to the seeds in the
Module and their growth will be
Monitored for 5-10 days and
Compared to Earth based controls seeds
Will include Arabidopsis, basil
And turnips this will be the first
Life sciences experiment on another
World and an important first step
In the utilization of plants
For human life support follow up experiments
Will improve the technology in
The growth module and allow for
More extensive plant experiments