Talking about agriculture on the Moon seems to be a little closer to reality thanks to the fact that a team of scientists has managed to grow plants in lunar soil that was collected during NASA’s Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions.
a historical landmark
At such a decisive moment for lunar and space exploration in general, being able to grow plants in soil from the Moon is a historic milestone for humanity. Researchers at the University of Florida have shown, in their study published in the journal Communications Biology , that plants can successfully sprout and grow in lunar soil. Until now, no plants had been grown on lunar soil.
Biologists have been able to successfully germinate and grow the terrestrial plant Arabidopsis thaliana (a flowering plant whose genetic code has now been fully mapped) on various lunar regoliths.
“For future longer space missions, we can use the Moon as a hub or launch pad. It makes sense that we want to use the soil that’s already there to grow plants,” said Rob Ferl, lead author of the study. “So what happens when you grow plants on lunar soil, something that is totally outside of a plant’s evolutionary experience? What would plants do in a lunar greenhouse? Could we have lunar farmers?
They barely had 12 grams of earth, lunar soil, for the experiment, but it was enough to put these questions to the test. They designed an incredibly simple experiment: plant seeds in lunar soil, add water, nutrients, and light, and record the results.
For comparison, the researchers also planted seeds in a variety of terrestrial soils, including those that simulate Martian soils.
What happened?
To the delight of the researchers, almost all the seeds sprouted. “We were amazed. We didn’t predict that,” said Anna-Lisa Paul, one of the study’s authors. “That told us that the lunar soils did not disrupt the hormones and signals involved in plant germination.”
Benefits for future colonies
This research is a first step toward growing plants for food and oxygen on the Moon or during future space missions; especially considering the closeness of NASA’s Artemis Program that plans to return humans to the Moon.
“Artemis will require a better understanding of how to grow plants in space,” said Ferl, an internationally recognized expert on the study of plants in space.
However, over time, the scientists observed differences between the plants grown on lunar soil and the control group. For example, some of the plants that grew on lunar soils were smaller, grew more slowly, or were more varied in size than their counterparts.
“At the genetic level, plants were putting out the tools normally used to deal with stressors, such as salt and metals or oxidative stress, so we can infer that plants perceive the lunar soil environment as stressful .” ”, clarify the experts.
It must be taken into account that the Moon is a fairly dry environment and that, in addition, it would be necessary to assess how the minerals of the Moon’s soil would respond to this change, having a plant growing in them, with water and nutrients. The researchers hope to clarify these new uncertainties in future follow-up studies.
Referencia: “Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith present stress-associated transcriptomes that inform prospects for lunar exploration” by Anna-Lisa Paul, Stephen M. Elardo and Robert Ferl, 12 May 2022, Communications Biology.
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8
