China #1 at successfully growing life on the dark side of the Moon

Back in January, China launched their Chang'e-4 spacecraft to the dark side of the moon. Now that spacecraft, and the potential life it contains has sprouted leaves.

China's Chang'e-4 spacecraft housed six life forms on the lunar surface: potato seeds, cotton seeds, rapeseeds, yeast, fruit fly eggs and Arabidopsis thaliana, a common weed. Also aboard the spacecraft was a mini-biosphere called the Lunar Micro Ecosystem (LME). This biosphere re-created Earth-like conditions excluding factors such as micro-gravity and cosmic radiation.

All of the other seeds died besides the cotton, and according to a new 3D reconstruction, the cotton planet grew not one but two leaves before it also died due to cold temperatures. The cotton leaves lasted about two weeks before falling into their cold fate, and from these findings China plans to continue studying how various life forms might be able to survive on the moon.