Scientists have succeeded in growing plants in lunar soil. A small step that encourages dreams: of moon cows that graze far away from the earth and give futuristic milk.
Since ancient times there has been a rumor that the moon is made of green cheese. But probably nobody seriously believed that, even before man had set foot on the moon. In fact, even Jules Verne, in whose science fiction novels all sorts of impossible things happen, found the idea that the moon could be anything other than a dead piece of rock too far-fetched. That’s what he is. And yet, researchers at the University of Florida, with support from NASA, have successfully planted plants in soil samples from the moon and germinated them.
The results were published in the journal Communications Biology and may one day prove helpful in growing crops on the lunar surface that will provide vital food or oxygen for possible lunar colonization. To grow their tiny moon garden, the researchers used thimble-sized wells in plastic plates commonly used for cell cultures. Each depression served as a plant pot with about one gram of moon soil. They were sown with seeds of thale cress, a humble but fully genetically decoded cabbage plant.
Compared to a control group growing in normal soil, the moon plants were smaller on average and grew more slowly. But they grew even though the lunar soil is chemically fundamentally different from Earth’s. A small step – but perhaps the first – towards the cultivation of luscious moon pastures on which moon cows graze. Their milk may one day actually be used to make green cheese.
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