When NASA sends Artemis astronauts back to the moon in the coming years, they should be able to grow their own lettuce. This is just a branch of a historical experiment in which scientists used samples of lunar surface material called regolith to successfully grow plants here on Earth.
The seeds of the Arabidopsis thaliana plant, which is associated with green mustard, have been deposited in small samples of regolith collected from three different Apollo missions half a century ago.
As the seeds germinate and grow, they do not thrive.
“Lunar soils do not have many of the nutrients needed to support plant growth,” said Stephen Ellardo of the University of Florida at a news conference Wednesday.
Ellardo co-authored an article presenting the study, published in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday, along with Anna-Lisa Paul and Robert Furl.
While the plants grew in a way that showed that they were stressed, they still found a way relatively quickly, with a little help from the team that provided them with light, water and nutrients.
“After two days, they started sprouting!” Paul, who is also a professor of gardening at the University of Florida, said in a statement. “Everything sprouted. I can’t describe to you how amazed we were! Every plant – whether in a lunar sample or in a control – looked the same until about the sixth day.”
By the end of their first week, regolith plants showed slower growth, stunted roots and leaves, and some red spots. Later genetic analysis will confirm that the greens were under stress.
Lunar regolith is very fine-grained and powdery, but make no mistake, because these grains also have sharp edges. Inhalation of moon dust can damage the lungs and this is also not very hospitable for plant life.
“Ultimately, we would like to use gene expression data to help tackle how we can improve stress responses to a level where plants – especially crops – are able to grow in lunar soil with very little impact on their health, “Paul added.
Firl says growing plants on the moon is the key to a long stay on the moon, helping to provide not only food but also clean air and water for astronauts and other visitors.
“When we go somewhere in space, we always carry our agriculture with us,” said Ferl, also of the University of Florida. “Showing the plants that will grow in the lunar soil is actually a huge step in that direction.
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