"Lunar farmers?" Scientists have grown plants in moon soil

While dreams of terraforming other planets and humanity conquering the stars may yet be lightyears away, a team of scientists have, for the first time in human history, managed to grow plants in soil taken from the Moon.

Researchers from the University of Florida (UF), with support from NASA, have shown that plants can successfully be both planted and sprout in lunar soil while also investigating how plants respond biologically to the Moon’s soil, which is radically different from the soil found on Earth.

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The results were published in the Communications Biology journal, and it could one day prove instrumental in growing plants on the moon's surface that could provide vital food or oxygen for potential habitation. This proof of marginal progress in the human exploration of space proves that Neil Armstrong's famous words still resonate through history.

The news comes as NASA's Artemis programme looks to return humans to the moon by 2025 - the first time since 1972.

“For future, longer space missions, we may use the moon as a hub or launching pad. It makes sense that we would want to use the soil that’s already there to grow plants,” said Rob Ferl, one of the study’s authors and a distinguished professor of horticultural sciences at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“So, what happens when you grow plants in lunar soil, something that is totally outside of a plant’s evolutionary experience? What would plants do in a lunar greenhouse? Could we have lunar farmers?”

“Artemis will require a better understanding of how to grow plants in space,” he added.

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Co-author Anna-Lisa Paul said that plants have always been vital for lunar exploration, primarily by ensuring the soil did not carry pathogens or chemicals that could endanger human life.

"Lunar plants were only dusted with the lunar regolith and were never actually grown in it,” she added.

The process began with simple steps: the team took seeds, planted them in lunar soil, added water, nutrients and light, and then waited and recorded the results.

The primary challenge for this was the soil sample size the team had to work with. UF reports that only 12 grams of regolith, collected from the Apollo 11,12, and 17 missions, were available with which to conduct the tests.

Outside of the soil having significant historical and scientific value, the team also had to redesign the experiment to work with such as small sample.

To grow their tiny lunar garden, the researchers used thimble-sized wells in plastic plates normally used to culture cells, with each well serving the function of a plant pot - each containing around a gram of lunar soil, moistened with a nutrient solution, before seeds were dibbed.

For the experiment, seeds from the Arabidopsis plant were used, which is often used in tests such as this because "its genetic code has been fully mapped," according to the team.

For reference, the team also planted these seeds into " JSC-1A," a formula designed to mimic the properties of lunar soil, alongside other compounds that mimic Martian soil, as well as Earth soils were taken from extreme environments that served as a control group.

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The team claims they were unsure if the seeds in lunar soil would sprout, but the tests were ultimately successful.

Paul revealed the team were "amazed" and "could not have predicted" the result.

“[The research] told us that the lunar soils didn’t interrupt the hormones and signals involved in plant germination.”

In addition, as time passed, the team was able to thoroughly detail the differences between plants grown in the different types of soil.

There were a number of physical signs differentiating the samples. For example, plants grown in lunar soil were often smaller, grew more slowly, or more varied in size than those grown in Earth soils. Apparently, these are signs the plant was "working" to adapt to the different chemicals present.

This even has implications at a genetic level. Paul revealed little things, such as pulling out tools typically used in stressors, like salt and metals or oxidative stressors, which implies the plants view the soil as stressful. The team also found more "mature" lunar soil - soil exposed to more cosmic wind, therefore altering its chemical makeup.

There is also the possibility that growing plants in lunar soil alters the soil itself like what happens on Earth. There is also no telling what adding water and nutrients will do, as the Moon is completely barren.

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In essence, this could lead to an extremely rudimentary version of terraforming - a science fiction concept where humans adapt an environment to suit them, rather than adapting to an environment that is typically seen through evolution.

It could also be a gamechanger when it comes to future manned missions into the solar system.

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