[HN Gopher] Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith ___________________________________________________________________ Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith Author : perihelions Score : 79 points Date : 2022-05-12 18:55 UTC (4 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.nature.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com) | yborg wrote: | 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. | fennecfoxen wrote: | No one has made credible plans towards supporting a settlement | on the Moon in the last 50 years, either. | [deleted] | Isamu wrote: | Real 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 wrote: | Real 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 wrote: | Well, that's not surprising, what with all these Covid | supply chain issues and all. I'm sure it'll be resolved | soon. | [deleted] | Karawebnetwork wrote: | My understanding is that we have only a small sample and | growing things in it would ruin it for a lot of experiments. | noselasd wrote: | We do have 382 kilograms of lunar samples returned form the | apollo missions - not sure how much of that is regolith | though | ghostly_s wrote: | These have got to be the most expensive flowers in history. | avmich wrote: | I'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? | lurquer wrote: | You 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. | Nikbul wrote: | It 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. | gtowey wrote: | That 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. | uoaei wrote: | Experiments 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. | guenthert wrote: | So 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 wrote: | Clearly there's going to be plastic shielding in the balloon | style green houses they will build with the right air | mixture. /s | rich_sasha wrote: | Amazing. | | I wonder if other plant species are better suited to growing in | Lunar "soil". Just like on Earth plants prefer one type of soil | to another. | Maciek416 wrote: | At least _prior_ to knowing anything else about regolith, aside | from it sometimes having volcanic origins: Speaking as a person | who grows a wide variety of woody tree species (pines, maples, | junipers, cottonwoods, azaleas, etc) in inorganic substrates | like pure perlite, pure lava, pure pumice (+combinations of | those and other volcanic media), and has seen all of these tree | species happily send roots into things like IKEA astroturf or | blocks of Rockwool, it doesn't surprise me that regolith could | maybe work as a grow media. | gibolt wrote: | Is it not the case that they'd be 'looking' for good soil | beyond those surfaces, even if it wasn't there? | | It makes sense evolutionarily to 'just work' when possible, | especially since the alternative is death | a1369209993 wrote: | > pure lava, | | Is this jargon for some lava-derived rock like obsidian or | basalt? Because I'm fairly sure even extremophile bacteria, | never mind any kind of tree, wouldn't be able to grow in | actual (ie molten rock) lava. | rich_sasha wrote: | Fascinating... dare I ask, is that a hobby? A very unusual | job? | Maciek416 wrote: | Bonsai. Hobby for me, but unusual job for my mentors. | idiotsecant wrote: | Interestingly ionic stresses on plants is not a problem unique | to the moon - There are plenty of places on earth | where(relative to typ. earth soil) high salinity soils exist : | | https://www.agriculture.com/crops/cover-crops/new-life-for-s... | | With a little bit of selective breeding and genetic | manipulation moon diets might include a lot of specialized | barley and sugar beets! | chrisweekly wrote: | I'm picturing the solar system's first batch of actual | moonshine. | s0rce wrote: | Salicornia do really well in salty marshy areas and are | edible! | m348e912 wrote: | cookingrobot wrote: | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_evidence_for_Apo... | jotm wrote: | How can they orbit the Earth when it's flat? Come on | dylan604 wrote: | We call that circling the drain rather than orbiting. | idiotsecant wrote: | Remarkable. I guess some of the old timey tinfoil hat theories | are still around. If the Americans didn't put the LLR on the | moon who did? I think you'll find it difficult to suggest that | it's naturally occurring. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment | zardo wrote: | The moon landings were faked, but they faked them on site. | walrus01 wrote: | They hired Stanley Kubrick to fake it, but he insisted on | authenticity for the cinematic method, so the only solution | was to film on-site. | jl6 wrote: | Apollos 1-10 landed on the moon to properly scope it out so | they could be sure the faked Apollo 11 would look | realistic. | kube-system wrote: | 1+10=11 -- that can't be a coincidence! | importantbrian wrote: | I had a roommate who was really into these conspiracies. I | brought up the LLR and his response was that he believes NASA | sent rovers and satellites and other automated missions to | the moon, but doesn't believe we landed men on the moon. So | he said the LLR was placed there by one of those missions as | part of the hoax. | oh_sigh wrote: | Look at all the comments on those videos and you can see | those theorie are still quite popular. | | I love their behavior as some kind of evidence though. | Basically the argument boils down to "Come on, really?..." | dylan604 wrote: | I mean we still have people that believe the earth is flat, | so of course Kubrik helped NASA fake the landing on a sound | stage in Hollywood. | stuff4ben wrote: | So just plain regolith was used? I wonder if it was augmented by | fertilizer how much of a difference it would make (a la The | Martian)? | perihelions wrote: | They did add stuff; C-f for "nutrient solution" | nomercy400 wrote: | Any reason they picked this specific plant? | siver_john wrote: | It is often a model organism in plant studies, similar to mice | in drug discovery. Mostly because it has a quick growth time, | is fairly hardy, and just the fact it has been so well studied | means that a lot is known about it. | | I am not a plant biologist but have talked to some and I've | often seen it used in their work and this was their given | reasons. | rzzzt wrote: | Wikipedia says its small genome and short "cycle time" makes it | an excellent test subject for various experiments. A photo | depicts it growing in sidewalk cracks. | | Maybe they'll pick an orchid next time! ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-05-12 23:00 UTC)