Scientist grow plant in moon soil
- Category
Science & Technology
- Published
23rd May, 2022
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Context
Scientists have for the first time grown plants in lunar soil brought back by astronauts in the Apollo program.
About
About the research:
- For their experiment, the researchers used just 12 grams (a few teaspoons) of lunar soil collected from various spots on the Moon during the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions.
- In tiny thimble-sized pots, they placed about a gram of soil (called "regolith") and added water, then the seeds. They also fed the plants a nutrient solution every day.
- The researchers chose to plant arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of mustard greens, because it grows easily and, most importantly, has been studied extensively.
- Its genetic code and responses to hostile environments -- even in space -- are well known.
- As a control group, seeds were also planted in soil from Earth as well as samples imitating lunar and Martian soil.
Key findings:
- Every plant -- whether in a lunar sample or in a control -- looked the same up until about day six.
- But after that, differences started to appear: the plants in the lunar samples grew more slowly and had stunted roots.
- After 20 days, the scientists harvested all the plants, and ran studies on their DNA.
- In the future, scientists want to understand how this environment could be made more hospitable.
- NASA is preparing to return to the Moon as part of the Artemis program, with a long-term goal of establishing a lasting human presence on its surface.
About NASA’s Artemis mission:
- NASA’s Artemis mission is touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
- Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
- NASA's Artemis program aims to put astronauts on the moon's South Pole in 2024.
- The program is part of an international effort to build a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface
- Artemis I is the first of NASA’s deep space exploration systems.
- It is an un-crewed space mission where the spacecraft will launch on SLS, the most powerful rocket in the world.
- It will travel 2,80,000 miles from the earth for over four to six weeks during the course of the mission.
- The Orion spacecraft is going to remain in space without docking to a space station, longer than any ship for astronauts has ever done before.
- The SLS rocket has been designed for space missions beyond the low-earth orbit and can carry crew or cargo to the moon and beyond.
- The learnings from the Artemis programme will be utilised to send the first astronauts to Mars.

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