The goal of Artemis program is to bring humans back to the Moon. Even create a space base there that serves as a springboard to travel to other places, such as Mars. But for this it would be necessary to find methods to subsist in an environment that, everything is said, is not the most conducive to it. And this implies, for example, looking for ways to get food. We can take them from Earth, but if we want to spend long periods on our satellite, the ideal would be to cultivate them. For this reason, a team of scientists from the University of Florida work has already been put to work to see if it is possible to grow plants on the soil of the Moon. But they have not traveled there, but have resorted to some of the samples brought to Earth during the Apollo missions.
It has been difficult to obtain permission to use the soil samples from the moon. In fact, the authors of study just published in Nature Communications they passed 11 years trying. It is not for less, because the samples are limited and it has an incalculable historical and scientific value. In addition, not all of them are preserved, some have had to be discarded after being taken out of confinement for non-academic purposes. It happened a few years ago, when two NASA students decided it would be a good idea to have sex on top of some moondust.
For all these reasons, these scientists received only 12 grams of soil from the Moon to grow plants. It wasn’t enough for a big garden, of course, so they had to adjust everything to a very small scale. Even so, they achieved their goal, since they managed to get some of the Arabidopsisa genus widely used in research, germinate and grow on lunar dust, known as regolith. Yes, it is true that they did not grow with the same strength as on earth. But there is hope for the next missions to the Moon.
Grow plants in space
Although it is the first time that plants have been grown on the Moon, or at least on the soil of the Moon, space farming is not new. Experiments with plants have been carried out precisely for years in the International Space Station (ISS). Last year, for example, they grew their own chilies and then they made tacos with them.
But it is true that the growing conditions can be controlled much better in these facilities. Perhaps when humans return to the Moon they could build greenhouses like those used on the ISS, but the ideal would be to take advantage of the space that the satellite already gives us.
Two experiments have been carried out in this direction. On the one hand, in 2019 China managed to germinate a cotton seed in selenite territory as part of the Chang’e-4 mission. Unfortunately, it ended up succumbing to the sudden changes in temperature.
This is something that could be controlled. In fact, then the problem was a failure in its sensors, but the experiment was going in that direction. Now, the seeds traveled with the ship, so they were not sown directly on the floor of the moon. It would be even more ideal if plants could be grown directly on the regolith in the future. And that’s where this latest study comes in.
A mini garden on the floor of the Moon
Since they only got permission to use 12 grams of soil from the Moonthese scientists designed a kind of miniature garden.
used plastic well plates thimble-sized, like those used to grow cells. Approximately one gram of soil from the Moon was placed in each of them and an aqueous solution with the necessary nutrients for plant growth was added. Then a few seeds of Arabidopsis. They are interesting plants, because their entire genome has been sequenced and that would be very useful for the next step.
But before that next step, they did what’s known as the control crop. This consisted of sowing seeds in soil samples that mimic the soil of the Moon or Marsbut they have been obtained here on Earth.
To their delight, the plants grew, both in the Lunar soil samples and in the control. However, as time passed its size began to vary. Those that had been grown in regolith seemed to grow more slowly and with difficulty.
Therefore, they analyzed gene expression of each other. In other words, since they know all the genes of this plant, they checked which ones were being activated in each type of crop. Those that grew in soil samples from the Moon were expressing genes that are normally turn on when the plants are under a lot of stress, for example due to high salinity or extreme temperatures. In addition, these signs of stress were greater in plants that had been grown in Luna soil from places more exposed to the elements. cosmic winds.
All this gives three interesting facts. To begin with, yes it is possible to grow plants on the soil of the Moon. On the other hand, it is observed that not all the satellite is equally suitable for cultivation, since there are more stressful areas for crops. And, finally, we have obtained a gene expression profile which can give ideas about the details that need to be improved. There is still a long way to go before we can visit the Moon and establish colonies on it, so there is time to perfect the technique. At least what these scientists have done is a great start. It may not have been as satisfying as having sex on regolith samples, but it may have slightly more positive implications for the future of humanity.