If humanity wants to plant flags on the Moon, followed by research facilities, housing, neighborhoods, and then strip malls, we’re first going to need to figure out how we’re going to feed ourselves. That’s where the moon rice project comes in. It’s half a deep-space food experiment, half a complete rethinking of Earthly agriculture.

Covered by Eureka Alert and launched by the Italian Space Agency in collaboration with major Italian universities, the moon rice project is designing a whole new space-ready kind of rice: super short, protein-packed, high-efficiency, and capable of thriving in zero-G.

Rice is a global food staple. He earned that reputation due to its resilience, ease of transport, and global cultivation. But standard Earth rice is too tall and requires too much maintenance to feed an astronaut. So, the team is hacking the rice plants’ genetics and hormone responses to breed an extra tiny variety that maxes out at a minuscule 10 centimeters.

And that’s not the grain. That would actually be a huge grain of rice. 10 centimeters describes the height of the rice plant itself. On average, a rice plant can range from 2 to 4 feet tall. 10 centimeters is equal to just under four inches. That’s a pocket-sized rice plant that can fit comfortably on a moon base while leaving plenty of room for everything else.

Scientists Are Working On A New Type Of Rice Designed To Be Grown On Space Bases

Making the rice plant smaller is only one part of the plan. The research team in Rome is tweaking the crop’s genetic architecture to make it much more productive and grow more efficiently.

The team in Naples is developing strategies for growing rice plants and microgravity, by getting the plants used to no longer being tugged by Earth’s gravity. They do it by constantly rotating the plant to simulate the pull of gravity, kind of like how spaceships and science fiction stories sometimes simulate gravity with spinning sections of a larger ship. A lot of it is about tricking the plant into thinking it’s still on Earth.  

The researchers just started their multi-university space rice project. They have a four-year plan in place that will hopefully end with rice suitable to grow not just in space, wherever humanity may roam among the stars, but back here on earth to feed people in deserts, Arctic outposts, or cramped urban areas.

The idea is that if we can grow rice on the moon, there’s a chance we can grow rice in the climate-ravaged future we’re staring down the barrel of right now. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But if it does, it’s at least a little bit comforting knowing that people are planning to keep us chugging along through our self-imposed doom.