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Major breakthrough! For the first time ever, researchers have planted plants in lunar soil

author:Beiqing Net

According to CNN, USA Today and other foreign media reports, a new study published in the journal Communication Biology on May 12 showed that researchers at the University of Florida first planted plants in lunar soil collected during NASA's Apollo lunar mission. This was the first time a plant sprouted and grown in lunar soil, laying the foundation for planting plants that provide oxygen and food on the moon.

Rob Fell, assistant vice chancellor for research at the University of Florida and one of the study's co-authors, said: "This is a key discovery – plants grow in lunar soil. It's very shocking because plants have never been to the moon and seeds have never adapted to living there. ”

Experiments that have been in the making for 15 years

Major breakthrough! For the first time ever, researchers have planted plants in lunar soil

Arabidopsis thaliana sprouting from lunar soil CNN diagram

It's been a long-simmering experiment, 15 years after the researchers first proposed and requested lunar samples, which was finally approved 18 months ago.

The team asked NASA to provide 4 grams of lunar soil collected during the Apollo 17 mission. NASA Apollo sample curator Ryan Ziegler saw the scientific value of providing more samples from different Apollo missions, ultimately providing lunar soil collected from Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions, for a total of 12 grams.

The researchers used utensils commonly used to grow cells as "flower pots," filling each grid with 1 gram of lunar soil, adding nutrients and water, and then sprinkling seeds from Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant native to Eurasia and Africa.

At the same time, arabidopsis seeds were also planted in synthetic material and volcanic ash that simulated lunar soil in order to compare with plants grown in lunar soil.

Good news and bad news

Major breakthrough! For the first time ever, researchers have planted plants in lunar soil

By day 16, there were clear physical differences between plants growing in volcanic ash (left) and plants growing in lunar soil (right). CNN diagram

The good news for this study is that all the seeds sprouted and started growing.

But the bad news is that after the first week, the roughness and other properties of the lunar soil put so much pressure on these plants that they grew slower than seedlings planted in simulated lunar soil.

Arabidopsis seedlings show signs of struggle in adapting to lunar soil. Plants sown in lunar soil grow slower, smaller, and show more signs of stress, such as pigmentation and expression of stress-related genes, compared to plants that grow in simulated lunar soils.

While plants grown in lunar soil are sprouting and growing, plants grown in the Apollo 11 sample perform worse than those in the Apollo 12 and 17 samples, suggesting that there are also differences between lunar soils.

The Apollo 11 sample was exposed to solar and cosmic radiation for the longest time. The researchers speculate that the effects of long-term high-energy bombardment may have made the lunar regolith particularly sensitive to biology. The lunar surface is often bombarded by cosmic radiation and the solar wind, as well as iron particles and tiny glass shards, all of which affect plant growth.

Follow-up studies

Major breakthrough! For the first time ever, researchers have planted plants in lunar soil

Researchers plant seeds under LED lights in the CNN diagram

The researchers hope to conduct follow-up studies to understand how growing plants in the lunar environment changes the lunar soil and how to activate lunar greenhouses.

Further research could also help researchers determine the most effective way to grow plants in lunar soil. The researchers also wanted to get a clear picture of the nutritional value of these plants and whether they were affected by the soil.

Although Arabidopsis thaliana is edible, it is not tasty and is not considered a food crop. But it belongs to the same plant family as broccoli, kale, turnip and cauliflower.

BATACHARIA, chief scientist at NASA's Aerospace Biomimicry, considers the discovery of plant growth "quite exciting" and said the study offers scientists many follow-up opportunities.

Batacharia wrote in an email: "We need to look at how to make plants grow better in the regolith matrix. For example, do we need to add other components to help plants grow and, if so, what are they? Are there other plants that better adapt to these weathered matrix, and if so, what characteristics make them more adaptable to these environments? ”

"That's where science is exciting, with each new discovery leading to more unique and transformative outcomes that we can then use to help improve the sustainability of our future space exploration missions!"

Ideally, scientists say, future astronauts could use the moon's available soil resources for indoor cultivation, rather than building a hydroponic system. Growing plants on the moon is key to a long stay on the moon, not only providing food for astronauts and other visitors, but also helping to provide clean air and water.

Upstream News Compiled by Ruochen Yang