Scientist grow plant in moon soil

Published: 23rd May, 2022

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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