Media

El País, 8th november 2020

“Los Agricultores del Espacio” (The Farmers of the Space)

More than 3,400 projects, including a Spanish one that will go to the Moon with China, are investigating how to cultivate extraterrestrial soil to allow the installation of colonies. “The basaltic regolith [layer of unconsolidated materials] on Lanzarote is very similar to that on the Moon,” Ortega explains. With this soil and others altered with a higher and lower concentration of metals, they investigate "how the plant obtains the nutrients to grow."

More than 3,000 teams in the world work to overcome all barriers and one of the most advanced is the Spanish Green Moon Project, born at the University of Malaga and led by the young 27-year-old Andalusian engineer José María Ortega Hernández, currently based in the UK, where he works for Bentley.

The team, already presented to NASA and its Artemis program, which provides for the return of astronauts to the Moon, has signed an agreement with the Space Exploration Center of Chongqing University to experiment with crops in space after the probe china Chang'e 4 landed on the far side of the Moon in January last year and managed to sprout a cotton seed, the first plant to grow on the satellite. Ortega contacted Chinese researchers, whom he convinced that Spain has sufficient resources to open the way to space agriculture.

The Green Moon Project, in which the Cabildo and Geopark of Lanzarote, the Institute of Geosciences and the Spanish Network of Planetology and Astrobiology participate, is already testing on the Canary Island. “The basaltic regolith [layer of unconsolidated materials] on Lanzarote is very similar to that on the Moon,” Ortega explains. With this soil and others altered with a higher and lower concentration of metals, they investigate "how the plant obtains the nutrients to grow." In addition, Lanzarote provides lava tubes similar to those of the Moon and that would be one of the best spaces for space gardens, since this would protect them from cosmic radiation.

NIUS, 5th january 2021

“Cultivos españoles en la Luna para 2022” (Spanish crops on the Moon by 2022)

The team that makes up the Green Moon Project works on how to farm on the Moon. They advance with a firm step. At the head of this group is José María Ortega-Hernández, from Malaga, who works at Bentley and, at the same time, leads the international project.

After the confirmation of the existence of water on the Moon, the idea of farming there has acquired much more strategic importance in view of its possible colonization. It is in this context that the China Space Exploration Center's interest in the Green Moon Project has come into play. "Towards the middle of this century, there will be greenhouses up there that will help sustain its inhabitants," José María tells NIUS.

In 2022, they plan to send the first units with a Chinese mission to experiment inside the capsule, a few meters above the lunar soil, how the first plants grow, a privilege to which specimens of tomato, lettuce, lentil, cucumber and pepper aspire.

To do this, tests are already being carried out with horticultural crops in Granada to find the fastest growth and efficiency cycles and with many space limitations, and the idea is that the small capsules can house seeds. For this, different types of regoliths are used -the soil that will be found on the Moon or similar- with materials brought from Lanzarote (which has a similar composition), others that imitate the one that the missions have brought from the satellite and normal earth.

AGROFYNEWS, 1ST MARCH 2021

“Los productores del espacio: emprendedores ya tienen fecha para cultivar en la Luna y en Marte” (The producers of space: entrepreneurs already have a date to grow on the Moon and on Mars)

The race to "space gardens" has already begun. While NASA, along with other international organizations, launched the Deep Space Food Challenge to help bring innovative food production technologies into space, Spanish entrepreneurs estimate to send a test capsule with four crop tests to the Moon by 2022.

It is the Green Moon Project, a company whose goal is to develop technology to achieve essential crops on the Moon or Mars, which allow the sustainable development of space life. "The central hypothesis is that the plant grows faster on the Moon than on Earth," says José María Ortega, general coordinator of the company. "Our pillars are planetary geology, plant biology and aerospace engineering", highlights the businessman, for whom it is a project that "will have future profitability".

In this sense, he clarifies that sending "something" into space is very expensive, so it is necessary to be sustainable based on what is found there. "It is not just planting seeds, we need to generate atmosphere and environment through the use of engineering, if we want to grow crops there," Ortega specifies.

DIARIO SUR, 5TH JANUARY 2021

“El experimento agrícola del científico malagueño José María Ortega, camino de viajar a la Luna” (The agricultural experiment of the Malaga scientist José María Ortega, on the way to travel to the Moon)

It could be said that José María Ortega Hernández's is not a bad career plan, as an engineer for the prestigious luxury car brand Bentley in England. But the man from Malaga aspires to fly higher, as much as the Moon. In the other professional facet of him, the man from Malaga, who is a specialist in mechanics and aeronautics, leads a team of scientists who collaborate with the main space agencies to get to grow vegetables on Earth's satellite, first, and then on Mars.

The last step for the take-off of the 'Green Moon Project', as it is called, has been the preselection by the European Space Agency -among some 600 proposals- to support future Nasa Artemis missions. The goal is for his experiment on plant growth outside the Earth to travel on EL3, the great European logistics lander, a material delivery system where trials like his will also travel.

At the moment, the initiative has been integrated into various working groups, such as those on life support and greenhouses; closed systems for the production of food with lunar resources; habitability on the lunar surface; and on-site resources for the production of food, oxygen, and water and air purification. "It is about supporting the habitability of future missions, with laboratory greenhouses to produce food and purify the air," explains Ortega.

The team is made up of large Spanish science firms, such as Jesús Martínez-Frías, planetary geologist at the Institute of Geosciences (IGEO) and president of the Spanish Network of Planetology and Astrobiology (Redespa), who is the scientific coordinator of the project. As well as Jorge Pla-García, planetary scientist and specialist in atmospheres at the Madrid Astrobiology Center (like the previous one, dependent on the CSIC), who acts as technological coordinator. "Both have extensive experience in missions from NASA and the European Space Agency." InnoPlant, a company created with the support of the University of Granada, participates as a business partner and biological coordinator, led by Eva Sánchez Rodríguez and Juan Hernández Narváez.

AUTOBILD, 11TH DECEMBER 2020

“El ingeniero Español en Bentley que quiere cultivar en la Luna” (The Spanish engineer at Bentley who wants to farm on the Moon)

During the exchange of emails with José María Ortega-Hernández, a young Spanish engineer who works at Bentley and, at the same time, leads an international project to grow vegetables on the Moon, his Malaga salt shaker and closeness immediately appears. Open and cheerful, she doesn't mind getting into the detail of how his meteoric career is about to take him further than he ever dreamed of.

And that the media bombardment is intense after it is known that a prototype of its Green Moon Project could travel to the terrestrial satellite aboard a Chinese spacecraft in 2022. Its objective is to test how to farm on the Moon, according to this Spanish engineer from Bentley, by the middle of this century, there will be greenhouses up there that will help support its inhabitants.

Having said this, José María's path to becoming a Bentley engineer may seem less attractive. Study, study, learn languages, study, be curious, talented, supportive people and a pinch of luck. The ingredients are the same as those found in many Spanish car brands that I have come across before. However, yours must have something more than all of them.

How did the Green Moon Project get there? After five years of evolving and maturing his initial idea. Today, "our objective is clear: Towards the future space agriculture and habitability through the combination of planetary geology, plant biology and aerospace engineering! We are combining the knowledge of Engineering, Astrobiology and Geology to understand what the future will be like. space crops that will be key in future space missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. "

Along the way, the Green Moon Project team has grown although it is still 100% Spanish. They have joined the Dr. in Geology Jesús Martínez Frías (Scientific Coordinator), the Dr. in Planetary Atmospheres Jorge Pla García (Technological Coordinator), both scientists with extensive experience in missions of NASA and the European Space Agency) as well as the company InnoPlant, who is in charge of adapting land to certain crops with Eva Sánchez Rodríguez, Biological Coordinator of the project and Dr. in Plant Biology, and the head of the laboratory, Plant Biotechnologist Juan Hernández Narváez.

CANAL SUR TV, 23rd january 2020

ConCiencia (WithScience) TV programme

Introducing the new steps made signed and how we are developing our testing crops at InnoPlant laboratories and Lanzarote island with the support of Lanzarote Regional Government, Lanzarote and Chinijo Archipelago UNESCO Geopark, Spanish Astrobiology and Planetology Network (REDESPA) and Instution of Geosciences of Spain (IGEO).

CANAL SUR TV, 16TH SEPTEMBER 2019

Newcast, Andalucía TV

Introducing the agreement signed between Green Moon Project and the Chinese Center of Space Exploration at Andalucía TV.

DIARIO SUR, 15TH SEPTEMBER 2019

“Un malagueño se une a la NASA china para cultivar plantas en el espacio” (A man from Malaga joins Chinese NASA to grow plants in space)

José María Ortega Hernández is a 26-year-old aeronautical and mechanical engineer from Malaga. Some time ago, he had to speak for his concerns and inventions, among which the fact of having led the 'Green Moon' project stands out, with which a group of university students were finalists in a competition to carry an experiment to the lunar mission of the India. His research on the cultivation of plants in extraterrestrial environments has now earned him the opportunity to open the door to cooperation between Spanish and Chinese science.

"They have the resources, but we have the level of scientific and technical knowledge in Spain," he explains, on his return from the Asian giant, where he has just signed a collaboration protocol between the Center for Space Exploration of the University of Chongqing and a team of high-level Spanish scientists. To gauge the importance of this center, it is worth mentioning that he is not only responsible for research in astrobiology and extraterrestrial ecosystems, but also for the design of the space exploration rover of the Chinese Space Agency.

Ortega says that he got in touch with Gengxin Xie, a Chinese scientist who chairs the space exploration center and chief designer of the biological load of the mission that in January managed to sprout the first cotton seedling on the Moon, within the Chang mission. 'and 4. They did it with a microcapsule, similar to the idea that young researchers from Malaga proposed two years ago, "but much more expensive." "We offered them to establish synergies and we were in contact between January and August, until I was able to travel to China to speak in person and materialize the collaboration," he says, adding: "We had to take this train, we don't know where it can go. , China invests a lot in space with an incredible program, which includes lunar bases, a space station and reaching Mars, which is something that we are going to see in the medium term.

CANAL SUR TV, 20TH FEBRUARY 2017

Newcast, Andalucía TV

Green Moon Project technological demonstrator presentation before travelling to the Lab2Moon final organised by Team Indus within the Google Lunar X Prize in Bangalore (India) in March 2017.

Spanish astrobiology centre (cab), csic-inta, 4th march 2017

Green Moon Project presentation given to the scientists and engineers at the Spanish Astrobiology Centre (CAB).

Green Moon Project technological demonstrator presentation before travelling to the Lab2Moon final organised by Team Indus within the Google Lunar X Prize in Bangalore (India) in March 2017.

ONDA CERO RADIO, 12TH MARCH 2017

Onda Cero, Spanish Radio programme

Green Moon Project technological demonstrator presentation before travelling to the Lab2Moon final organised by Team Indus within the Google Lunar X Prize in Bangalore (India) in March 2017.