One Giant Leap for Plantkind?

According to a nifty Wired.com blog article, NASA scientists put forward the idea this week of launching plants to the moon and watching their growth carefully, as a way of studying the potential effects of long-term habitation (low gravity, radiation, etc.).

The brave plant suggested for the job is Arabidopsis thaliana, part of the mustard family:

Moon colonist?

Check out the linked article for a full rundown of thaliana's moon-faring resume.

Interesting things could potentially happen when you mix plants and lunar radiation/soil/etc., but regardless, this is an idea that is a potential wonder of effectiveness through simplicity.

Hawking for Colonization

Recently, at an event marking NASA's 50th anniversary, the legendary physicist Stephen Hawking joined the ranks of those vocally supporting Lunar and Martian colonization.

And then some. Calling for the world to "devote about 10 times as much as 0.25% of its financial resources to space", as well as an acceleration of the efforts to get man on Mars (currently looking to be in the early 2030s), he also noted that any long-term colony should have a significant gravity field to avoid microgravity health issues (bone loss, etc.), often cited as a concern for moon colonies and a central feature of Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

The 66-year-old Hawking is brilliant, yet near-paralyzed (he still considers himself "lucky"), and is widely known for his research with theoretical cosmology (the structure and design of the universe), quantum gravity (beyond the description of a simple parentheses), and black holes. Having such high-profile supporters speaking out now asserts how timely colonization is for this era and generation; as colonization picks up even more speed, we may see potentially even more vocal supporters.