The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon

Spreading life to the stars

Nothing is as scarce in this universe, or as beautiful, as life. We want to put the celebration of life at the center of space exploration. Through high technology, cutting-edge science, and an emphasis on equity and inclusion, we are planting the seeds today for tomorrow’s forests on the Moon.
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Our Projects

The SCAMPI Project

The SCAMPI Project will send a self-sustaining aquarium to the ISS for 90 days to examine the effect of the space environment on a multitrophic ecosystem.

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PLANT-B CubeSat Terrarium Mission

We're sending a self-sustaining terrarium in a 3U cube satellite to low earth orbit. The major innovations we are investigating are passive light and thermal management, as well as the viability of plants in the "orbital environment".

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News and Articles

What’s new?

SCAMPi has begun assembly and testing phases

The student-led SCAMPi project, which will investigate how space impacts ecosystems at the genetic level, has begun its assembly and testing phases! SCAMPi is supported by the ESA Academy Experiments Programme, and for the experiment to proceed as planned, the shrimp must survive the intense journey to the International Space…

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Our student-led SCAMPI team is fundraising!

In 2025 the SCAMPI team will send Hawaiian red shrimp, macroalgae, and microbes to the International Space Station (ISS) in a self-sustaining ecosphere to better understand how aquatic ecosystems behave in microgravity.  Why? Because creating sustainable ecosystems in space that can support life isn’t just science fiction—it’s essential for the…

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Winners of the Lunar Life Odyssey Challenge!

Exciting news! Our Lunar Regolith Bio-Remediation Experiment has landed 1st place in the Lunar Life Odyssey challenge, an initiative by NASA and Jacob's Space Exploration Group, hosted by HeroX. This competition revolved around addressing inherent challenges related to exploring the solar system moving to, from and around the moon. Challenges…

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ICES 2023 Publications and Summary

Hello, space enthusiasts! We're excited to share some fantastic news from the recent 2023 International Conference on Environmental Systems, which took place July 16-20th in beautiful Calgary, Canada! Our very own space ecologist Patrick Grubbs represented The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon and presented our first two published…

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Comparing Life Support Solutions: PCLSS vs BLSS vs CELSS

We are witnessing the advent of the New Space Race - and this time, when we go back to space, we're going to stay. That makes the question of how to sustain human life in the inhospitable environment of space more pertinent than ever. The challenges are many – we…

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Moon Marsh Concept: An Autonomous Solution for Sustainable Lunar Resource Generation

In the quest to realize humankind's dream of stepping beyond Earth and sustaining life elsewhere, we propose an innovative approach that harnesses the elegance and efficiency of nature itself. Inspired by the lush, vibrant ecosystems of Earth's salt marshes, we envision a biodome on the lunar surface, a "Moon Marsh"…

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