These are the first plants grown in moon dirt (2024)
That’s one small stem for a plant, one giant leap for plant science.
In a tiny, lab-grown garden, the first seeds ever sown in lunar dirt have sprouted. This small crop, planted in samples returned by Apollo missions, offers hope that astronauts could someday grow their own food on the moon.
But plants potted in lunar dirt grew more slowly and were scrawnier than others grown in volcanic material from Earth, researchers report May 12 in Communications Biology. That finding suggests that farming on the moon would take a lot more than a green thumb.
“Ah! It’s so cool!” says University of Wisconsin–Madison astrobotanist Richard Barker of the experiment.
“Ever since these samples came back, there’s been botanists that wanted to know what would happen if you grew plants in them,” says Barker, who wasn’t involved in the study. “But everyone knows those precious samples … are priceless, and so you can understand why [NASA was] reluctant to release them.”
Now, NASA’s upcoming plans to send astronauts back to the moon as part of its Artemis program have offered a new incentive to examine that precious dirt and explore how lunar resources could support long-term missions (SN: 7/15/19).
The dirt, or regolith, that covers the moon is basically a gardener’s worst nightmare. This fine powder of razor-sharp bits is full of metallic iron, rather than the oxidized kind that is palatable to plants (SN: 9/15/20). It’s also full of tiny glass shards forged by space rocks pelting the moon. What it is not full of is nitrogen, phosphorus or much else plants need to grow. So, even though scientists have gotten pretty good at coaxing plants to grow in fake moon dust made of earthly materials, no one knew whether newborn plants could put down their delicate roots in the real stuff.
To find out, a trio of researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville ran experiments with thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). This well-studied plant is in the same family as mustards and can grow in just a tiny clod of material. That was key because the researchers had only a little bit of the moon to go around.
The team planted seeds in tiny pots that each held about a gram of dirt. Four pots were filled with samples returned by Apollo 11, another four with Apollo 12 samples and a final four with dirt from Apollo 17. Another 16 pots were filled with earthly volcanic material used in past experiments to mimic moon dirt. All were grown under LED lights in the lab and watered with a broth of nutrients.
“Nothing really compared to when we first saw the seedlings as they were sprouting in the lunar regolith,” says Anna-Lisa Paul, a plant molecular biologist. “That was a moving experience, to be able to say that we’re watching the very first terrestrial organisms to grow in extraterrestrial materials, ever. And it was amazing. Just amazing.”
Plants grew in all the pots of lunar dirt, but none grew as well as those cultivated in earthly material. “The healthiest ones were just smaller,” Paul says. The sickliest moon-grown plants were tiny and had purplish pigmentation — a red flag for plant stress. Plants grown in Apollo 11 samples, which had been exposed on the lunar surface the longest, were most stunted.
Paul and colleagues also inspected the genes in their mini alien Eden. “By seeing what kind of genes are turned on and turned off in response to a stress, that shows you what tools plants are pulling out of their metabolic toolbox to deal with that stress,” she says. All plants grown in moon dirt pulled out genetic tools typically seen in plants struggling with stress from salt, metals or reactive oxygen species (SN: 9/8/21).
Apollo 11 seedlings had the most severely stressed genetic profile, offering more evidence that regolith exposed to the lunar surface longer — and therefore littered with more impact glass and metallic iron — is more toxic to plants.
Future space explorers could choose the site for their lunar habitat accordingly. Perhaps lunar dirt could also be modified somehow to make it more comfortable for plants. Or plants could be genetically engineered to feel more at home in alien soil. “We can also choose plants that do better,” Paul says. “Maybe spinach plants, which are very salt-tolerant, would have no trouble growing in lunar regolith.”
Barker isn’t daunted by the challenges promised by this first attempt at lunar gardening. “There’s many, many steps and pieces of technology to be developed before humanity can really engage in lunar agriculture,” he says. “But having this particular dataset is really important for those of us that believe it’s possible and important.”
For the first time ever, researchers have grown the hardy and well-studied Arabidopsis thaliana in the nutrient-poor lunar regolith. Anna-Lisa Paul, left, and Rob Ferl, working with the lunar soils in their lab.
(Image credit: Tyler Jones, UF/IFAS.) For this study, the researchers used samples of lunar soil, called regolith, taken during Apollo 11, 12 and 17, between 1969 and 1972. In all three samples, they grew a common lab specimen, a small plant called thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana).
A. thaliana was the first plant to ever flower in space, in 1982, aboard Soviet Salyut 7. It is one of the most common plants grown in space due to its immense research value. It is not a viable source of food for astronauts, but the discoveries made using A.
Lunar regolith is made up of rock chips, mineral fragments, impact and volcanic glasses and a peculiar component only found on the Moon called “agglutinates” (Figure 1).
A cotton seed carried to the Moon by China's recent Chang'e-4 probe has sprouted, the first for any biological matter to grow on the Moon, the media reported on Tuesday. Images sent back by the probe showed that a cotton sprout had grown well, though no other plant was found growing, the Xinhua news agency reported.
As the name suggests, the moonflower, or Ipomoea alba, blooms in the moonlight. These vine plants produce large, white trumpet-shaped flowers and a slight lemon scent, providing an enchanting background for neighboring night-blooming outdoor plants.
In May 2022, scientists at the University of Florida reported that they had successfully grown plants from seeds planted in Moon samples. NASA astronauts collected this lunar surface material decades earlier, during the Apollo program.
About 470 million years ago, when life was rapidly evolving, during the Ordovician epoch, the first terrestrial plants first arose. Liverworts and mosses were shallow-rooted non-vascular plants.
In October 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space. NASA and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages, and eventually, feeding future space colonies.
The lunar surface is covered by a layer of unconsolidated debris called the lunar regolith (fig. 53). The thickness of the regolith varies from about 5 m on mare surfaces to about 10 m on highland surfaces.
“The Moon doesn't have soil like Earth does,” Atkin said. “On Earth, the soil has organic material filled with nutrients and microorganisms, which support plant growth. Those are missing on the moon. This adds to other challenges, such as reduced gravity, radiation and toxic elements.”
During the day, the Moon has to compete with sunlight, which is also being scattered by the atmosphere, so it looks white. The Moon is covered in regolith, which is a fine powder. This is often referred to as "Moon dust". Our eyes adjust our perception of gray or white relative to "something else".
Moonflower is not on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's list of controlled substances, but local law enforcement measures in the Akron/Cleveland area prohibit selling seedpods for illicit use. The cluster of moonflower exposures reported to DPIC might represent a new form of substance abuse in the Akron/Cleveland area.
That said, lunar soil is prospected as a lunar resource, particularly for lunar in situ utilization, such as a lunar building material and soil for growing plants on the Moon. Lunar soil is primarily the result of mechanical weathering.
Chang'e-4 lunar rover carried among its payload a small biosphere that housed six lifeforms, including cotton seeds. Using data from that biosphere experiment, researchers constructed a digital image of the cotton plant that reveals it grew two leaves before dying from the cold.
Professor Liu Hanlong of Chongqing University, who led the research, said that rapeseed and potato seeds had also germinated, but that the cotton seeds were the first to sprout, the South China Morning Post reported.
Although deciding to plant a flag on the Moon's surface during the Apollo 11 Moon landing was made at the last minute, it is one of the most iconic images from the Moon landing. All future Apollo missions would follow suit and plant their own flags.
What biological material has China managed to grow on the moon? China's space rover, Chang'e-4, was sent with cotton seeds that it managed to successfully germinate in a self sustained biosphere inside the river. Marking the first time plants have actually been grown on the lunar surface.
Introduction: My name is Neely Ledner, I am a bright, determined, beautiful, adventurous, adventurous, spotless, calm person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
