Study: Providing food in space, lettuce can be grown on the Moon

They say their discovery, published in the journal Communications Biology, could have an impact on future exploration of the Moon.

Rob Ferl, one of the study’s co-authors, says their discovery could help astronauts on missions to the Moon pull out their food and land

the need for frequent supplies from the Earth. “When people move as a civilization, not to explore for a few days, but when we go somewhere to stay, we always take our agro-cultures with us,” says Ferl.

In addition to improving the level of food security in the space, the study also brings other benefits. It can help astronauts clean the air, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and produce clean water.

How plants are planted in the moonlit soil

Researchers planted Arabidopsis seeds (a type of rock grass) on the moon taken about 50 years ago, during three separate Apollo missions to the Moon: Apollo 11 and 12 in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972.

They divided the soil into 1 gram parts and threw it in the container. There they added water, light, and food for the plants. They also planted quite a bit of volcanic ash, a substance that is similar to lunar soil, to serve as control.

The scientists looked at less than 48 hours of plant germination in both groups, but a few days later noticed that the plants in the lunar soil were stressed. Plants in regolith looked numb compared to those in volcanic ash.

But Ferl says the fact that the plants were able to germinate in general is a positive finding. “The important thing is that before this experiment was done, no one knew if plants, especially those with roots, would be able to interact with highly combustible, highly antagonistic soil such as lunar regolith,” says Ferl.

The difficulty remains in securing the evidence

The experiment itself was easy, but finding the material needed to do the experiment was difficult. There was only a small amount of lunar soil to do the experiment, 12 grams in total, as much as a tablespoon, and requests had to be made several times over a decade, to get it from the US Space Agency, NASA.

“This evidence is a natural treasure trove of great value,” said study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul. “When we work with them we change them. The first from air (they come in contact with air) and water, they are no longer original and lose their archival nature, which is very, very protected. ”

The discovery is significant, perhaps more important than ever, given that NASA and the European Space Agency hope to bring man back to the Moon with their Artemis program.

There are plans to make the first launch of the Artemis unmanned mission in 2022 and the manned mission a decade later. Other countries are also planning to visit the Moon in the coming years, including Japan and China.

But scientists still do not know how Earth plants will react in the lunar, real, simulated environment. The moon is very dry compared to the Earth and this can change the ability of plants to germinate./DW