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.