Scientists have successfully cultivated a plant in lunar soil in a breakthrough that could have significant implications for long-duration space missions.
Scientists at the University of Florida have successfully cultivated a plant in lunar soil for the first time. The achievement could have significant implications for future long-duration space missions in which astronauts will need to have access to their own food sources. To conduct the experiment, the scientists persuaded NASA to lend it samples of lunar regolith collected from different locations on the moon during three Apollo missions that took place five decades ago. They then placed seeds of the hardy Arabidopsis plant in tiny samples of nutrient-poor lunar regolith and waited to see if anything happened. To the scientists’ delight, green shoots started to appear after just two days. However, after about day six, it was clear that the plants were not as healthy as they would’ve been if grown in Earth soil, or even as those in the control group that were cultivated in a lunar simulant made from volcanic ash.
