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>Researchers placed seeds in the samples, watered them and then put the trays into a terrarium box, to which they added a nutrient solution daily I'm no expert

by bragr 4y ago

>Researchers placed seeds in the samples, watered them and then put the trays into a terrarium box, to which they added a nutrient solution daily I'm no expert but this sounds more like using lunar regolith as a hydroponics growth medium than as a soil. Next they might try compressing the lunar samples into more traditional hydroponic pellets and compare the results. I do wonder how long you'd need to "Mark Watney" the lunar regolith before it becomes proper soil.

polishdude20 4y ago
Isn't this just like sand though? There needs to be some organic material in there or some form of nutrient.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  Not really. One step beyond hydroponics, aeroponics is quite neat- no rooting medium used, the roots are exposed to air and kept from drying out with a mist of water and nutrients. It's been used by NASA and commercially as an alternative to hydroponics due to less (different, really) maintenance and supposedly faster, larger yields (more efficient, controlled delivery to the roots presumably).
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    You’re right that you can support plants in inert mediums if there’s a nutrient supplied in the water. I think the person you responded to was suggesting that the soil without added nutrients wouldn’t do anything, which is probably correct. Since you’re right about aeroponics, I wonder what the practicality of using moon dust as a medium is. Perhaps it contains some amount of minerals that could be extracted by plants, thereby reducing how much of it we need to ship to the moon? I’m not even sure that’s possible without established microbial and mycelial cultures – do plants extract minerals from dirt on their own? The experiment results aren’t overtly meaningful here in any case. I thought NASA was so interested in aeroponics partially because of how useless the moon is as a medium for agriculture.
    - zdragnar 4y ago
      Without microbes or fungi, plants are mostly left to either chemical weathering from water or turning carnivorous (which takes a really really long time). Aeroponics has the added benefit of being really frugal with your water supply. Most of the water in a hydroponic system is literally just sitting around in a tube, useless. Also, a leak in an aeroponics system is way less catastrophic in a low-to-no gravity situation. I think using moon dust as a rooting medium would be helpful for water retention in a pseudo-hydroponic setup, as the surface tension would help keep the water from flowing away from the roots. It certainly beats trying to ship the stuff from earth on a rocket, at the very least.
- alimov 4y ago
  If they are supplying the nutrient then it might not matter as long as the regolith is not toxic to plants.

by bragr 4y ago

polishdude20 4y ago

Isn't this just like sand though? There needs to be some organic material in there or some form of nutrient.

zdragnar 4y ago
Not really. One step beyond hydroponics, aeroponics is quite neat- no rooting medium used, the roots are exposed to air and kept from drying out with a mist of water and nutrients. It's been used by NASA and commercially as an alternative to hydroponics due to less (different, really) maintenance and supposedly faster, larger yields (more efficient, controlled delivery to the roots presumably).
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  You’re right that you can support plants in inert mediums if there’s a nutrient supplied in the water. I think the person you responded to was suggesting that the soil without added nutrients wouldn’t do anything, which is probably correct. Since you’re right about aeroponics, I wonder what the practicality of using moon dust as a medium is. Perhaps it contains some amount of minerals that could be extracted by plants, thereby reducing how much of it we need to ship to the moon? I’m not even sure that’s possible without established microbial and mycelial cultures – do plants extract minerals from dirt on their own? The experiment results aren’t overtly meaningful here in any case. I thought NASA was so interested in aeroponics partially because of how useless the moon is as a medium for agriculture.
  - zdragnar 4y ago
    Without microbes or fungi, plants are mostly left to either chemical weathering from water or turning carnivorous (which takes a really really long time). Aeroponics has the added benefit of being really frugal with your water supply. Most of the water in a hydroponic system is literally just sitting around in a tube, useless. Also, a leak in an aeroponics system is way less catastrophic in a low-to-no gravity situation. I think using moon dust as a rooting medium would be helpful for water retention in a pseudo-hydroponic setup, as the surface tension would help keep the water from flowing away from the roots. It certainly beats trying to ship the stuff from earth on a rocket, at the very least.
alimov 4y ago
If they are supplying the nutrient then it might not matter as long as the regolith is not toxic to plants.