For the first time, scientists managed to grow plants in lunar soil. With this development, an important step has been taken that will make it possible to stay on the moon for a long time.
Researchers found that cress seeds planted in a soil sample brought to Earth during the 1969-1972 Apollo missions surprisingly germinated two days later.
University of Florida professor Anna-Lisa Paul, who wrote a paper on the findings; "I can't tell you how surprised we are," he said.
“The plants in the ordinary soil and the plants in the lunar soil looked the same until about day six. "After that, plants grown in lunar soil began to experience stress and grew slower than plants in ordinary soil, stunted and most of them wilted," he said.
However, the relevant people say that this is a breakthrough and will have worldly effects.
NASA chief Bill Nelson; astronauts operating in space of this research; as it will need to use resources found on the Moon and Mars to develop future food sources; pointed out that it is critical to long-term humanitarian exploration goals.
Related Products
Bill; He said this fundamental plant growth research is also a prime example of how Nasa is working to unlock agricultural innovations that could help us understand how plants can cope with stressful conditions in food-scarce regions on Earth.
Another challenge for researchers is that there isn't a lot of lunar soil to experiment with. In a 3-year period, 1969-1972, NASA astronauts brought 382 kg of moon rock, pebbles, sand and dust from the lunar surface.
During the research, the University of Florida team was given only 1 g of soil per plant for experiments, from lunar soil samples that had been locked up for decades.
In a mission scheduled for 2025, NASA aims to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972.
NASA plans to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972, with a mission scheduled for 2025.