A tiny, self-contained greenhouse has been selected to fly on the robotic lander that Red Planet colonization effort Mars One intends to launch in 2018, group representatives announced Monday (Jan. 5).

The greenhouse experiment, known as Seed, was one of 35 proposed lander science payloads submitted by university groups around the world. Mars One whittled this original pool down to 10 finalists, and Seed was chosen by a monthlong public vote that closed on Dec. 31. [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery).

"We are really pleased to be the selected project among so many excellent ideas," Seed team member Teresa Araújo said in a statement. "We are thrilled to be the first to send life to Mars. This will be a great journey that we hope to share with you all."

The payload will send seeds of the small flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, an organism commonly used in space-science experiments, to Mars inside two containers. (The outer one will serve a protective function.) Upon landing, the seeds will be exposed to heat and a growth medium, giving them the chance to germinate and grow. Images relayed to Earth will let team members — who are based at several universities in Portugal and Spain — know how the experiment is going.