Scientists managed to grow plants on the lunar territory

Scientists from the University of Florida for the first time managed to grow a plant on lunar soil. To conduct the experiment, scientists convinced NASA to provide them with samples of lunar regolith collected from different places on the moon during the Apollo missions.

Then, placed the seeds of the hardy plant Arabidopsis in small samples of nutrient-poor lunar regolith. and waited for something to happen.

To the delight of scientists, green shoots began to appear after two days.. However, after the sixth day, it became clear that the plants were not as healthy as if they were growing in earth soil.

For example, plants in regolith grew more slowly, had stunted roots, and some had reddish pigmentation. On the 20th day, just before the plants began to bloom, the team collected them, crushed them, and studied the RNA (ribonucleic acid).

The results confirmed that the plants were indeed stressed and that they were responding in the same way that Arabidopsis grew in other harsh environments such as soils rich in salt or heavy metals.

Scientists also determined that the quality of the lunar soil varies, as one sample in particular produced worse growth results than the other two.

The team now plans to use the same regolith for plant more seeds to find out if the original plants had any effect on the lunar material.; in other words, to find out if the plants have somehow processed the lunar material so that the next group of plants will find it less hostile.

Target: Artemis quest

The study comes at a time when NASA is promoting the Artemis program, which plans to return to placing humans on the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions some 50 years ago.with the ability to perform long-term missions to Mars.

Astronauts on the International Space Station have also experimented with ways to grow edible plants on a habitable satellite, with leafy greens growing successfully through years of ongoing space exploration.