The seeds will be sent to the moon in the Moon Express Lander (illustrated here by computer generation) in 2017

Nasa is to try growing vegetables and herbs on the moon to see if humans could one day live there.

The US space agency plans to send seeds to the moon in 2017 in sealed canisters containing everything that is needed for the seedlings to thrive.

As well as ten seeds each of basil and turnips, there will also be around 100 seeds of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard.

On landing, a trigger will release a small reservoir of water inside the canister and a team on Earth will monitor how the seeds germinate when exposed to lunar gravity and radiation.

A group of scientists, students and volunteers - known as the Lunar Plant Growth Habitat team - are behind the project which will see the seedlings photographed at intervals to compare with those planted on earth.

The air in the sealed containers should be adequate for more than 5 days of growth.

A Nasa spokesman said: ‘They can test the lunar environment for us, acting as a canary in a coal mine.

'If we send plants and they thrive, then humans probably can.'

Thriving plants need the same ingredients for life as humans – food, water and air – and also provide psychological comfort for people, demonstrated by the popular greenhouses in Antarctica and the International Space Station.

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