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What surprised me the most about this story is that apparently nobody tried this obvious experiment in the last 50 years. It seems basic to supporting a settlem
by yborg 4y ago
What surprised me the most about this story is that apparently nobody tried this obvious experiment in the last 50 years. It seems basic to supporting a settlement on the Moon.
- Karawebnetwork 4y agoMy understanding is that we have only a small sample and growing things in it would ruin it for a lot of experiments.
- ghostly_s 4y agoThese have got to be the most expensive flowers in history.
- seattle_spring 4y agoI dunno, inflation has really hit weed prices lately.
- lobocinza 4y agoMore than Tulips?
- 8organicbits 4y agoReference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania > a Viceroy Tulip was worth upwards of five times the cost of an average house at the time.
- noselasd 4y agoWe do have 382 kilograms of lunar samples returned form the apollo missions - not sure how much of that is regolith though
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- avmich 4y agoI'm surprised given that some people had experience growing plants in sand, in water, in air, in some synthetic soils. Is the lunar soil somehow worse than that? Why?
- gtowey 4y agoThat was my question as well. But I think the article says the scientists didn't know if something in the lunar soil would actively inhibit plant growth. It looks like the answer is no, and you can use it as an effective substrate for what is essentially a hydroponic type setup where the nutrients are all added.
- Nikbul 4y agoIt is worse for Earth plants due to long term exposure to solar radiation and direct meteorite impacts. Article states that Iron in the moon soil is Fe2, while on Earth it present as Fe3. Another major difference-is silicates and glass composition on the moon. Those are formed by micro meteorite impacts and very different from earth volcano samples. So plants in moon soil had to adapt a lot more then expected. Also difference between actual moon soil and Earth's moon soil replacement for labs is clearly visible.
- lurquer 4y agoYou can grow plants in a can of steel bb’s, ground up gummy bears, sand, shredded beer cans, etc…. The matrix isn’t important to most plants. Just the nutrients it gets. Any hydroponic pot grower knows this.
- GordonS 4y agoDoes bacteria in soil play no part? It was mentioned in a Peter F Hamilton sci-fi book when talking about terraforming the world "Far Away" - no idea if the bacteria thing real or made up though!
- CuriousCosmic 4y agoBacteria and fungi are an important part of soils. It's part of the reason that there are culture solutions you can purchase for gardens. Mycorrhiza for example is very important for the growth of certain types of herbs and vegetables (and really just a large number of plants in general). Likewise bacteria are one of the major legs of one of the major ecological processes that's essential for sustaining life on Earth (the nitrogen cycle). The bacteria in soil convert nitrogen gas from the air (which breathes into the soil) into various nitrate compounds which are then absorbed by plants' roots (this is why fertilizer often contains ammonium nitrate). Bacteria are also involved in the phosphorus cycle as well however to a lesser degree. Really micro-organisms in the soil are involved in varying degrees for each of the biogeochemical cycles that life on earth depend on.
- guenthert 4y agoSo you mean if the plants wouldn't suffocate from lack of CO2, wouldn't instantly freeze or dehydrate and not have their DNA destroyed by the radiation, then settlers could actually harvest them and prosper? Yeah, wonder why no-one thought about that.
- dylan604 4y agoClearly there's going to be plastic shielding in the balloon style green houses they will build with the right air mixture. /s
- Isamu 4y agoReal lunar regolith is not available for experiments like this. However you can buy simulated lunar regolith, it’s very expensive but not nearly so as the real thing.
- gibolt 4y agoReal lunar regolith is available in mass quantities, but the ports are just backed up. Not many ships flying round trip to the moon recently
- rland 4y agoWell, that's not surprising, what with all these Covid supply chain issues and all. I'm sure it'll be resolved soon.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fennecfoxen 4y agoNo one has made credible plans towards supporting a settlement on the Moon in the last 50 years, either.
- uoaei 4y agoExperiments have been ramping up over the past couple decades with both Luna- and Mars-analogous simulated regolith. The novelty is doing it on real regolith brought back from Luna.