Saturday, January 19, 2019

Goop

Remember, China was the first nation to send seeds that sprouted and grew on the face of another world.

Remember, because in images that’ll likely be in textbooks in a hundred years as space-farmers read holographic magazines and sip holographic coffee at the Moon-Cafes where they go once their duties of tending their moon-crops are done for the morning are going to feature something quite heavily:
Caulk.

Not the verdant green of the first cotton plants to sprout on the moon.

But caulk.

Behold:




Remember when this experiment, described here, was set up on Earth, they knew they were going to have a camera facing the soil in which they’d planted the first Moon-Seeds. They knew they wanted to record what was going on with the seeds and share those photos with the world as a FIRST!!!1!11!

So of course there’s tons of goop.

And what appears to be a cascade of glue as well. And a plastic lattice.

They’re telling me there’s a cotton plant in here somewhere. Other pictures show a much better sprouting. See?


But mostly I’m seeing caulk. And other assorted goop.

I still think it’s neat they grew plants on the Moon. Albeit briefly.

There’s such a thing, however, as presentation, folks. Presentation. Maybe the lattice is important. As is the goop, probably.

But this thing couldn’t have been designed to be less goop-dependent? Or, if the goop was unavoidable, perhaps it could have been made, you know, a lot less goopy? Was this thing built with off-the-shelf components in a nation that’s become a manufacturing powerhouse? Nobody looked at this and thought, “You know, we really should spend that extra $100 on a custom lattice that fits the space. Maybe we could take some money out of the goop budget.”

Maybe the goop is some futuristic, nutrient-rich Moon Goop?

Only the farmers sitting in the Moon-Cafes know for sure.

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