Scientists Take, Giant First Step , Toward Lunar Farming.
'Time' reports that NASA's Artemis program
aims to return American astronauts to the
moon and establish permanent lunar bases.
'Time' reports that NASA's Artemis program
aims to return American astronauts to the
moon and establish permanent lunar bases.
This means they must use the moon's soil,
referred to as regolith, as a medium
to grow crops in lunar greenhouses.
With NASA prepping themselves
to go back to the moon for longer excursions,
it became much more relevant that we
understand how resources that are in situ on
the moon can be used to further exploration, Anna-Lisa Paul, horticulturist
and lead author of the paper, via 'Time'.
According to a new study published
in 'Communications Biology,' scientists have
successfully grown crops in lunar soil for the first time.
The research was carried out
at the University of Florida by a team
of two horticulturalists and one geologist. .
The plants grown in lunar soil were smaller
and developed more slowly than control plants
grown in terrestrial volcanic soil.
The results led the team to suggest that
the age of the soil plays a crucial role
in determining the success of crops.
What we found was that the regoliths
that were more mature were indeed
more toxic to the plants, or at least they
presented a more toxic response, Anna-Lisa Paul, horticulturist
and lead author of the paper, via 'Time'.
What we could simply do in the absence
of other constraining factors, is land
and establish a habitat on a lunar surface
that is significantly younger than
the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 sites, Stephen Elardo, geologist and co-author, via 'Time'