European Spaceflight reported that a blaze at an outside contractor’s facility has postponed setup of EDEN-LUNA, the German containerized greenhouse built to test lunar crop growing, following a Bundestag reply to a parliamentary inquiry published Oct. 20.
The Bundestag’s reply confirmed the blaze but offered no specifics on the damage’s severity or the affected items. The blaze occurred during refurbishment of the greenhouse container at the contractor’s facility, and the hardware is bound for the LUNA site in Cologne.
European Spaceflight said DLR first announced on Sept. 4 that installation would move to 2027 without giving a reason. The LUNA facility in Cologne was originally scheduled for completion in 2026, but that date has shifted to the second quarter of 2027. The reason emerged only after Alternative for Germany legislators filed a parliamentary inquiry, and the Bundestag published its reply Oct. 20.
The German Aerospace Center is developing EDEN-LUNA to research technology for growing fresh food during extended stays on the Moon and Mars, European Spaceflight said. EDEN-LUNA builds on DLR’s EDEN ISS greenhouse, which ran near Germany’s Neumayer III station in Antarctica between 2018 and 2022.
Once the Antarctic campaign ended, the equipment was dismantled and returned to Germany in April 2023, European Spaceflight said. DLR has since been refurbishing the hardware at its Bremen space systems institute in preparation for a second EDEN-LUNA experiment run.
The upgraded unit will rely on robotic help, automated plant tracking, and waste nutrient recovery, European Spaceflight said. Those systems are intended to support fresh food production during long lunar and Martian missions.
EDEN-LUNA heads for LUNA in Cologne, a simulated lunar terrain of roughly 700 square meters operated jointly by DLR and the European Space Agency since it opened in September 2024, European Spaceflight said. The site tests technologies and prepares astronauts for future Moon missions.
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