China says desert moss suited to Mars as it tests hi-tech tools for space and astronauts

China has hopes for a desert moss that it says could colonise Mars following a revival experiment inside a mini space laboratory that showed it was remarkably resilient, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.

The plant, a highly drought-resistant species called Syntrichia caninervis, was revived after it was subjected to a series of extreme space conditions – including microgravity, intense radiation and severe dehydration – according to the report.

Chinese scientists had previously established...