While the foundations for humanity’s colonization in space continue to be laid rapidly, today an extremely important development has occurred that can help in this regard. The lunar soil brought to Earth by astronauts who went to the Moon and took soil samples during NASA’s Apollo missions managed to become a source of life for plants.
The studies, which started in 2021 under the leadership of University of Florida space biologist and geneticist Anna Lisa Paul, were successful. Scientists have succeeded in growing small plants in the soil of the Moon, which has been devoid of life for billions of years. The research indicates that in the future, astronauts will be able to farm their own greenhouses on the Moon.
Added nutrients to the soil for plants:
According to the study published in Nature, the soils used in the study were from the Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions. Scientists have added nutrients and water to the soil because these soils, unlike the soils on our Earth, have no minerals or ions.
- From left to right Anna-Lisa Paul, Rob Ferl
Mouse ear cress plant (arabidopsis thalian) after planting, in moon soil successfully greened. On the other hand, the results obtained in the study also showed that growing plants in the lunar soil is quite challenging. It was reported that the development of plants in the lunar soil is slow, and most of them show stress morphologies. However, all plants grown showed ionic stresses similar to the reaction of plants in Earth’s soil to salt, metal and reactive oxygen.
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