For the first time, scientists on Earth have grown plants on the soil of the Moon, an important step toward the production of food and oxygen on the Moon during future space missions. Soil was brought back to Earth by astronauts in Apollo missions 11, 12 and 17. He had only 12 grams – just a few teaspoons – of lunar soil for the experiment. American researchers from the University of Florida (UF) showed that plants can successfully germinate and grow in lunar soil.
Their study, published in the journal Communications Biology, also examined how plants respond biologically to lunar soil, also known as lunar regolith, which is very different from the soil found on Earth.
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The researchers designed a simple experiment: sow seeds in lunar soil, add water, nutrients and light, and record the results.
To grow their tiny lunar garden, the researchers used thimble-shaped wells in plastic plates commonly used to culture cells. Each well served as a vessel.
Once they filled each “pot” with about one gram of lunar soil, the scientists moistened the soil with a nutrient solution and added some seeds from the Arabidopsis plant that is widely used in research because of its The genetic code has been completely mapped.
Growing Arabidopsis in lunar soil gave researchers more insight into how soil affected plants, down to the level of gene expression.
The researchers found that almost all seeds planted in lunar soil were able to germinate.
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“We were amazed. We didn’t predict it. It told us that lunar soil did not inhibit hormones and signals involved in plant germination,” said Anna-Lisa Paul, one of the study’s authors and a research professor of horticultural sciences. he said. UF/IFAS.
The research comes as NASA’s Artemis program plans to return humans to the Moon.
“Artemis will require a better understanding of how plants grow in space,” said Rob Ferrell, one of the study’s authors and professor at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
“For the future, for longer space missions, we could use the Moon as a hub or a launching pad. It makes sense that we would want to use the soil we already have to grow plants.” is for,” Ferrell said.