BEIJING: Chinese astronauts are preparing to grow fresh vegetables on Mars and the moon after researchers successfully completed a preliminary test in Beijing, state media reported.

Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an “ecological life support system,” a 300 cubic meter cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions, Xinhua news agency said Monday.

The system, which relies on plants and algae, is “expected to be used in extra-terrestrial bases on the moon or Mars,” the report said.

Participants in the experiment could “harvest fresh vegetables for meals,” Xinhua quoted Deng Yibing, a researcher at Beijing’s Chinese Astronaut Research and Training Center, as saying.

“Chinese astronauts may get fresh vegetables and oxygen supplies by gardening in extra-terrestrial bases in the future,” the report said, adding that the experiment was the first of its kind in China.

China has said it will land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time next year, as part of an ambitious space program that includes a long-term plan for a manned moon landing.

The Asian superpower has been ramping up its manned space activities as the United States, long the leader in the field, has scaled back some of its programs, such as retiring its iconic space shuttle fleet.

In its last white paper on space, China said it was working toward landing a man on the moon—a feat so far only achieved by the US although it did not give a time frame.