WASHINGTON: It’s a tiny pot of clay, a giant leap forward for man’s knowledge of space agriculture: Scientists have grown plants for the first time in the lunar soil brought back by astronauts in the Apollo program.
The experiment, detailed Thursday in the journal Communications Biology, gives researchers hope that it may one day be possible to grow plants directly. moon,
This would save future space missions a lot of hassle and expense, facilitating longer and farther journeys.
However, according to the study’s authors from the University of Florida, much remains to be studied on this topic, and they leave no stone unturned.
For their experiment, the researchers used only 12 grams (a few teaspoons) of lunar soil collected from various locations on the Moon during the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions.
In small thimble-shaped pots, they placed about a gram of soil (called a “regolith”) and added water, then seeds. He also fed the plants a nutrient solution every day.
The researchers chose to plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of mustard greens, because it is easy to grow and most importantly, it has been extensively studied. Its genetic code and responses to hostile environments – even in space – are well known.
As a control group, seeds were also planted in soil Earth As well as samples simulating lunar and Mars soils.
Result: After two days, everything sprouted, including the lunar samples.
“Every plant – whether in the lunar sample or in the control – looked like this for about six days,” Anna-Lisa Paul, the paper’s lead author, said in a statement.
But after that, differences began to appear: the plants in the lunar samples grew more slowly and had fewer roots.
After 20 days, the scientists harvested all the plants, and ran studies on their DNA.
Their analysis showed that lunar plants responded similarly to those grown in unfavorable environments, such as soils with too much salt, or heavy metals.
In the future, scientists want to understand how this environment can be made more hospitable.
NASA Artemis is preparing to return to the Moon as part of the program, with the long-term goal of establishing a permanent human presence on its surface.
The experiment, detailed Thursday in the journal Communications Biology, gives researchers hope that it may one day be possible to grow plants directly. moon,
This would save future space missions a lot of hassle and expense, facilitating longer and farther journeys.
However, according to the study’s authors from the University of Florida, much remains to be studied on this topic, and they leave no stone unturned.
For their experiment, the researchers used only 12 grams (a few teaspoons) of lunar soil collected from various locations on the Moon during the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions.
In small thimble-shaped pots, they placed about a gram of soil (called a “regolith”) and added water, then seeds. He also fed the plants a nutrient solution every day.
The researchers chose to plant Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of mustard greens, because it is easy to grow and most importantly, it has been extensively studied. Its genetic code and responses to hostile environments – even in space – are well known.
As a control group, seeds were also planted in soil Earth As well as samples simulating lunar and Mars soils.
Result: After two days, everything sprouted, including the lunar samples.
“Every plant – whether in the lunar sample or in the control – looked like this for about six days,” Anna-Lisa Paul, the paper’s lead author, said in a statement.
But after that, differences began to appear: the plants in the lunar samples grew more slowly and had fewer roots.
After 20 days, the scientists harvested all the plants, and ran studies on their DNA.
Their analysis showed that lunar plants responded similarly to those grown in unfavorable environments, such as soils with too much salt, or heavy metals.
In the future, scientists want to understand how this environment can be made more hospitable.
NASA Artemis is preparing to return to the Moon as part of the program, with the long-term goal of establishing a permanent human presence on its surface.