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Whole experiment is plain absurd. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Mineralogy_and_composition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Mineralogy_a

Whole experiment is plain absurd. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Mineralogy_and_composition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil#Mineralogy_and_comp... > There are two profound differences in the chemistry of lunar regolith and dirt from terrestrial materials. The first is that the Moon is very dry. As a result, those minerals with water as part of their structure (mineral hydration) such as clay, mica, and amphiboles are absent from the Moon's surface. > The second difference is that lunar regolith and crust are chemically reduced, rather than being significantly oxidized like the Earth's crust. They added water and oxygen. Which undoes both of above. So they ended up with more or less aseptic earth dirt. And yeah, plants grow in that, duh.

jandrese 4y ago
I don't see what is so absurd about this. If we are growing crops on the moon we are going to add water and air. The success here means we wouldn't have to lug tons of soil to the moon in order to grow crops, we can use the available regolith as a base. Granted, it's not something I expect to come up in my lifetime, but research doesn't have to be immediately practical.
- chitowneats 4y ago
  Exactly. We've all been there: "It's just a one line change. I know I didn't really test it, but it's bloody obvious that it's going to work..." Redoing a moon landing mission is a bit more expensive than a short outage at a SaaS company.
- interestica 4y ago
  And there will be lots of humanure to augment it all that they can produce on site. In fact it may become a scarce resource.
- oneoff786 4y ago
  There’s not really any reason to grow crops on the moon though. A lunar base could be useful but never a self sufficient settlement of any sort. The moon cannot support a real atmosphere.
  - toast0 4y ago
    Moonberries could be tasty? Some form of agriculture could improve morale on a base; fresh food is nice. Possibly helpful for processing waste (although bag it and ignore it seems pretty viable too).
    - oneoff786 4y ago
      Moon dust is extremely dangerous. The taste would likely be just a function of nutrients. Seems like it would be a big risk. The ISS and subs do just fine without growing food.
  - tshaddox 4y ago
    Growing crops on the moon wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with being self-sufficient, right? Wouldn’t it just be a straightforward matter of whether sending the water and nutrients to grow crops would be cheaper than sending food grown on Earth?
    - oneoff786 4y ago
      It will be orders of magnitude cheaper to send food from earth. Growing crops requires time, water, nutrients, warmth sunlight, labor, and a lot space. I would wager that last one is the biggest issue but the others are non trivial. A starship heavy launch filled with food is ~$10M and is wayyy overkill.
  - a_t48 4y ago
    Couldn’t the CO2 be turned back into O2 + C? Understandably the tech to do so efficiently might not exist right now, but from a materials perspective I don’t see why not, with enough recycling. (Putting aside that Earth would still have to supply spare parts and some smaller amount of materials)
    - hammock 4y ago
      You mean like what a plant does?

jandrese 4y ago

I don't see what is so absurd about this. If we are growing crops on the moon we are going to add water and air. The success here means we wouldn't have to lug tons of soil to the moon in order to grow crops, we can use the available regolith as a base. Granted, it's not something I expect to come up in my lifetime, but research doesn't have to be immediately practical.

chitowneats 4y ago
Exactly. We've all been there: "It's just a one line change. I know I didn't really test it, but it's bloody obvious that it's going to work..." Redoing a moon landing mission is a bit more expensive than a short outage at a SaaS company.
interestica 4y ago
And there will be lots of humanure to augment it all that they can produce on site. In fact it may become a scarce resource.
oneoff786 4y ago
There’s not really any reason to grow crops on the moon though. A lunar base could be useful but never a self sufficient settlement of any sort. The moon cannot support a real atmosphere.
- toast0 4y ago
  Moonberries could be tasty? Some form of agriculture could improve morale on a base; fresh food is nice. Possibly helpful for processing waste (although bag it and ignore it seems pretty viable too).
  - oneoff786 4y ago
    Moon dust is extremely dangerous. The taste would likely be just a function of nutrients. Seems like it would be a big risk. The ISS and subs do just fine without growing food.
- tshaddox 4y ago
  Growing crops on the moon wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with being self-sufficient, right? Wouldn’t it just be a straightforward matter of whether sending the water and nutrients to grow crops would be cheaper than sending food grown on Earth?
  - oneoff786 4y ago
    It will be orders of magnitude cheaper to send food from earth. Growing crops requires time, water, nutrients, warmth sunlight, labor, and a lot space. I would wager that last one is the biggest issue but the others are non trivial. A starship heavy launch filled with food is ~$10M and is wayyy overkill.
- a_t48 4y ago
  Couldn’t the CO2 be turned back into O2 + C? Understandably the tech to do so efficiently might not exist right now, but from a materials perspective I don’t see why not, with enough recycling. (Putting aside that Earth would still have to supply spare parts and some smaller amount of materials)
  - hammock 4y ago
    You mean like what a plant does?