Scientists grow plants in 'soil' from the moon

Scientists from the University of Florida are growing plants in soil from the moon for the first time, using samples obtained by the earlier Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions. 

Published in the Journal of “Communications Biology”, the researchers demonstrated that plants can successfully sprout and grow in lunar soil, or lunar regolith. This could be a stepping stone for growing plants for food and oxygen on the moon. 

Anna-Lisa Paul, one of the study's authors and researcher of horticultural sciences in UF/IFAS says, "Plants helped establish that the soil samples brought back from the moon did not harbour pathogens or other unknown components that would harm terrestrial life, but those plants were only dusted with the lunar regolith and were never actually grown in it". 

842 pounds (382 kilograms) of soil and rocks was bought from the moon, but the researchers received only 12 grams of so-called "lunar regolith" from NASA. 

Using small-sized wells, like thimbles, plastic plates were used to culture cells in pots. The scientists used a gram of soil with an added nutrient solution and a few thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) seeds. The same seeds were planted in other types of soil coming from extreme environments and a substance mimicking lunar soil, as a control group.

Some of the plants grown in moon dirt were slower or smaller, and more variations in sizes. The researchers noted that the difference in lunar soil impacted the growth of plants. 

The study was concluded with "further characterization and optimization would be required before regolith can be considered a routine in situ resource, particularly in locations where the regolith is highly mature."