A fire at an external contractor’s facility has delayed the installation of a containerised greenhouse designed to simulate growing crops on the Moon.
According to a response to a parliamentary inquiry published by the German Bundestag on 20 October, a fire occurred while the EDEN-LUNA greenhouse container was being refurbished. The incident has pushed back the planned installation at the LUNA facility in Cologne, which was initially expected to be completed in 2026. The installation is now expected to take place in the second quarter of 2027.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) initially acknowledged that the installation would not take place until 2027 in a statement published on 4 September. It did not, however, provide a reason for the delay until prompted by a parliamentary inquiry submitted by members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
While the response to the parliamentary inquiry acknowledged the fire, it did not provide details about the extent of the damage or specify what had been damaged.
The EDEN-LUNA greenhouse is being developed by DLR to study potential technologies for growing fresh food during extended missions to the Moon and Mars. The project builds on the agency’s EDEN ISS greenhouse, which was operated near Germany’s Neumayer III research station in Antarctica between 2018 and 2022.
Following the conclusion of the Antarctic campaign, the greenhouse was dismantled and transported back to Germany in April 2023. Since then, DLR has been refurbishing and upgrading the facility at its Institute of Space Systems in Bremen in preparation for a second experimental campaign under the EDEN-LUNA programme.
The upgraded facility will include robotic assistance, automated plant monitoring and systems designed to recover nutrients from waste products.
The LUNA facility, where the greenhouse will be installed, is jointly operated by DLR and the European Space Agency. Inaugurated in September 2024, the facility features approximately 700 square metres of simulated lunar terrain and is used to test technologies and train astronauts for future missions to the Moon.
