Can Space Rice and Moon Cars Enable Lunar Living?

Why Returning to the Moon Faces Major Setbacks

It has been more than half a century since mankind’s last steps on the Moon, in 1972.

Paradoxically, we seem both less able to go back, and ready to do a lot more on the Earth’s natural satellite in the near future.

The main reason we are unable to go back is that we are still without an active ability to launch astronauts toward the Moon, with the Artemis mission having experienced several setbacks.

The first setback is a proposed 25% cut on NASA’s budget.

The second setback is the justified criticism of the SLS program, whose delays and runaway costs have severely impacted the Artemis Missions’ schedule (follow the link for an entire report explaining the details of the Artemis program).

The third setback is the possible cancellation of what was previously a key part of the Artemis program: the Lunar Gateway (follow the link for an extensive explanation of the goals and multiple components of Lunar Gateway). Although resistance to these budget cuts by the US Senate might still save the Lunar Gateway.

Still, not all is lost for the US plans to get back to the Moon. The SLS launcher will likely be replaced by SpaceX’s Starship at some point in the future. And NASA is moving on with other parts of its lunar exploration plans, notably the selection of instruments for the Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle. New genetically modified dwarf rice plants might also be key to producing food on-site for deep space bases and future off-world human colonies.

Lunar Instruments

NASA has selected three instruments to travel to the Moon, with two planned for integration onto an LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle) and one for a future orbital opportunity.

They will be crucial in these early efforts to determine the lunar resources and their utility for future human settlements.

By combining the best of human and robotic exploration, the science instruments selected for the LTV will make discoveries that inform us about Earth’s nearest neighbor as well as benefit the health and safety of our astronauts and spacecraft on the Moon.”

Nicky Fox – Science Mission Directorate at NASA.

LTV Instruments

The first instrument to be incorporated into the LTV is the Artemis Infrared Reflectance and Emission Spectrometer, or AIRES. It will be used to identify, quantify, and map lunar minerals and volatiles. Volatiles are materials that evaporate easily, like water, ammonia, or carbon dioxide, which are hard to quantify and very important for reducing the demand for imports from Earth.

The second instrument will be the Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS). This tool will measure what is below the lunar surface, with a special focus on finding water, by combining both a spectrometer and a ground-penetrating radar.

It will measure temperature, density, and subsurface structures to more than 131 feet (40 meters). Water is important not only for sustaining the astronauts, but also has many other uses in a permanent off-world base:

• Easy radiation shielding, with a few meters of ice or liquid water able to protect any habitat.
• Production of rocket fuel from hydrogen + oxygen, or methanol if a good source of carbon is found, for return trips and potential orbital industries.
• Sustain crops in aeroponics or hydroponics cultivation methods, including the rice strains discussed below.

Together, AIRES and L-MAPS should provide a much clearer view of the content of the lunar surface’s ability to sustain life. It will also help scientists better understand the history of the Moon and extrapolate the results obtained to other yet unmapped regions of Earth’s satellite.

A third instrument, the Ultra-Compact Imaging Spectrometer for the Moon (UCIS-Moon), has also been selected. This tool will stay in lunar orbit and help get the broad stroke of the lunar resources map.

By doing so, it should point to exploration teams the most promising areas to check with LTV.

“With these instruments riding on the LTV and in orbit, we will be able to characterize the surface not only where astronauts explore, but also across the south polar region of the Moon, offering exciting opportunities for scientific discovery and exploration for years to come.”

Joel Kearns – Deputy associate administrator for Exploration, Science Mission Directorate at NASA.

Meanwhile, the process of deciding on an LTV design is ongoing, in partnership with Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab.

Growing Crops On The Moon

Scaling Up Space Crop Production

If any significant population of astronauts is going to stay for long-duration missions away from low Earth orbit (LEO), it will require local food production, at least for the bulk of carbohydrates and proteins required to sustain human life (smaller and rarer vitamins or minerals can likely be obtained from shipped supplements).

So, while so far the experiment of growing lettuce and other greens in the ISS has been promising, this is not how a large-scale cultivation plan on the Moon or Mars would look like.

“Living in space is all about recycling resources and living sustainably. We are trying to solve the same problems that we face here on Earth.”

Marta Del Bianco – Plant biologist at the Italian Space Agency

So the potatoes of Matt Damon in the science-fiction movie The Martian are a lot closer to the possible reality.

Source: Modern Farmer

Making Space Rice

Smaller Is Better

Among staple crops, none is as productive as rice, with the highest productivity per square meter, and the possibility to have 2-3 harvests/year in the right conditions.

One problem, however, is that Earth rice strains were developed for growth in open-air paddy fields, not crammed in narrow corridors or space stations and potential Moon bases. Most are too big to be used in this very artificial setup.

“Dwarf varieties often come from the manipulation of a plant hormone called gibberellin, which can reduce the height of the plant, but this also creates problems for seed germination.

They’re not an ideal crop, because in space, you just don’t have to be small, you must also be productive.”

Marta Del Bianco – Plant biologist at the Italian Space Agency

The Moon-Rice Project

Solving this issue is the target of the Moon-Rice project, which involves 3 different Italian universities.

“The University of Milan has a very strong background in rice genetics, the University of Rome ‘Sapienza’ specializes in the manipulation of crop physiology and the University of Naples ‘Federico II’ has an amazing heritage in space crop production.”

Marta Del Bianco – Plant biologist at the Italian Space Agency

The researchers are starting with rice mutant varieties growing as little as 10 centimeters high (4 inches). They are then trying to find ways to improve the productivity of these rice strains.

Another factor to take into account is the difficulty of producing animal proteins in space. Instead, a more protein-rich rice grain would be ideal, with genetic modification to increase the protein-starch ratio under investigation. New technologies like CRISPR make such GMO plants a lot easier and cheaper to engineer, and the result a lot more precise and efficient.

Source: Phys.org

Getting Close To Space-Like Conditions

As a cost-saving measure, microgravity is only simulated by continually rotating the rice plant, so that the plant is pulled equally in all directions by gravity.

Testing in real microgravity in orbit would be ideal, but it would be much too expensive for multiple new strains needing testing.

We, however, know from Chinese experiments in 2022 that rice can grow well in space, for both a tall shoot variety reaching almost 30 centimeters and a dwarf variety reaching around 5 cm.

Another reason to cultivate rice and other plants in space is not practical, but psychological.

“Watching and guiding plants to grow is good for humans, and while pre-cooked or mushy food can be fine for a short period of time, it could become a concern for longer-duration missions.

If we can make an environment that physically and mentally nourishes the astronauts, it will reduce stress and lower the chances of people making mistakes.”

Marta Del Bianco – Plant biologist at the Italian Space Agency

Space might not be the only field where this technology could be useful. Remote bases in Antarctica, the Arctic, or deserts could benefit as well, for example.

Getting Ready For Space Settlements

The most important pieces of equipment for space colonization will be ultra-large & reusable rockets like SpaceX’s Starship, and the future equivalents from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and likely many public and private Chinese firms.

However, actually building a Moon base, and later on a Martian base, will require a lot of other tools: space cars, resource detectors, autonomous hydroponics farms, adapted plant strains, radiation shielding, excavation and construction tools, solar foundries, etc.

So companies working in this field will greatly benefit from the progress in rocketry, as every decrease in the cost to reach orbit allows for more mass to be sent up, increasing the demand for these tools.

Investing in the Aerospace Sector

Intuitive Machines

Founded in 2013 in Houston, Texas, Intuitive is a very “Moon-focused” company, as indicated by its stock ticker, and has already been selected for 4 NASA lunar missions, and employs 400+ people.

Source: Intuitive Machines

It was the first commercial company to successfully land and transmit scientific data from the Moon. It also performed the 1st firing of LOx/LCH4 (liquid oxygen, liquid methane) engine in space.

The company is working on many projects that will form the base of a lunar infrastructure for exploration and settlement.

The first one is the “data transmission service”, with the technology being tested, and ultimately looking to end with a lunar data transmission constellation around the Moon’s orbit.

Source: Intuitive Machines

The second part is the “Infrastructure as a Service”. It should include an LTV capable of autonomous operations, the telecommunication service, and GPS localization services.

Source: Intuitive Machines

The last segment is the delivery of material to the lunar surface. So far, the company has delivered scientific payloads with the Nova-C lander, a 4.3-meter-tall lander (14-feet) able to deliver 130kg of payload to the Moon.

The next step will be with the Nova-D lander, able to deliver 1,500-2,500 kg of material to the Moon. This payload capacity and size will be the one required for delivery of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), as well as the 40kW Fission Surface Power nuclear reactor expected to power the Moon base.

Source: Intuitive Machines

The company has landed many valuable contracts with NASA, for example, the Near Space Network contract, with a maximum potential value of $4.82B.

The LTV contract final decision by NASA between the 3 potential suppliers is expected for the end of 2025, and would be worth up to $4.6B as well.

Besides NASA, the company is trying to diversify its client base, having been selected in April 2025 for a grant up to $10M by the Texas Space Commission. This will support the development of an Earth reentry vehicle and orbital fabrication lab designed to enable microgravity biomanufacturing.

This reentry vehicle will also provide a backup option and reduce risks for the Company’s future lunar sample return missions.

Another project is the development of low-power nuclear stealth satellites for an Air Force research laboratory JETSON contract.

As the company reaches a positive free cash flow point in Q1 2025, and with the lunar telecommunication contract, it is now becoming a lot safer for investors, moving away from a cash-burning startup to an established services provider to the growing space economy.

As the development of new instruments for the LTV indicates, NASA is not going to let go of the Artemis project, even if elements like the SLS rocket might be overhauled. So the future for annex equipment providers like Intuitive seems promising.

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