Scientists grow plants in soil from the Moon for the first time
While a total of 842 pounds of soil and rocks has been brought back to Earth from the Moon, the researchers received just 12 grams of so-called"lunar regolith" from NASA. Still, that was more than the four grams they requested. Scientists Rob Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul had to be patient to get their hands on the soil as well — they applied three times over 11 years for the samples.
The team used thimble-sized wells in plastic plates, which are typically used to culture cells, as pots. The scientists placed a gram of soil into each of these, added a nutrient solution and then placed a few thale cress seeds. They planted the seeds in other types of soil as part of a control group, including simulated Martian soil, soils from extreme environments and a substance that mimics lunar soil.
Nearly all of the seeds planted in the lunar regolith sprouted, but the plants eventually showed some differences from the ones grown in the control group. Some of the Moon dirt plants grew slower or were smaller. There was more variation in sizes than with the control group cress as well., found that differences in the makeup of the lunar soil samples appear to have impacted the growth of the plants.
Still, the success of the experiment paves the way for the possibility of growing plants on the Moon for food and oxygen, ahead of NASA'staking humans back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. “Artemis will require a better understanding of how to grow plants in space,” Ferl, one of the paper's authors and a distinguished professor of horticultural sciences in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said.
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