Scientists first grew plants in lunar soil collected by the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions in 1969 and 1972. From their experiment, the researchers wanted to see if plants would grow in lunar soil, and if so, how plants would respond to the unfamiliar environment. to the level of gene expression.

This came in a new research paper published in Communications Biology, in which researchers from the University of Florida showed that plants can successfully germinate and grow in lunar soil.

On the study, the statement issued by the university on May 12 said that the study also looked at how plants respond biologically to the soil of the moon, which is fundamentally different from the soil on Earth.

And this study comes at a time when a program sponsored by NASA, which also issued a statement on the results of the study, is planning to send humans to the moon, which is a spaceflight program of the agency, American commercial space companies and international partners such as the European Space Agency, and aims to land “the first Woman and Man" on the Moon's south pole by 2024.

Scientists consider this study a step toward one day growing plants for food and oxygen on the moon or during space flights.

Growing plants in space

"Plants can grow in lunar soil," said study co-author Anna Lisa Ball, professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

This simple phrase makes a lot of sense and opens the door to exploring the future using the resources on the Moon and possibly Mars, as earlier plants helped prove that soil samples brought from the Moon do not contain pathogens or other unknown components that would harm terrestrial life, but these plants were only scattered on the lunar regolith and were not actually planted."

Rob Ferrel and Anna Lisa Paul look at plates filled with lunar soil (NASA)

On the other hand, Rob Ferrell, one of the study's authors and professor of horticulture at the same institute, says that the spaceflight program will require a better understanding of how to grow plants in space, adding, "For longer future space missions we may use the moon as a launchpad, and it makes sense that we want to use the existing soil. Already to grow plants."

On the questions raised by the research, Ferrell said, "What happens when plants are grown in the soil of the moon? What will the plants do in a lunar greenhouse (a glass room that is heated and prepared to grow some types of plants)? Can we have farmers on the moon?"

To answer these questions, the scientific team designed a simple experiment to plant seeds in lunar soil, which is estimated at about 12 grams, which were collected from previous Apollo missions after adding water, nutrients and light to it, and the results were recorded.

Cultivation of garden cress

The researchers put the soil in plastic dishes usually used for growing cells. They distributed the soil into 12 small containers, each containing one gram of moon soil. They moistened the soil with a nutrient solution and added some seeds from the Arabidopsis thaliana plant, and watched them sprout and grow. The growth of the cress plant in lunar soil allowed the researchers to observe and focus more on how the soil affects plants, down to the level of gene expression.

Before the experiment, researchers were not sure whether the seeds would germinate in lunar soil (NASA)

Before the experiment, the researchers were not sure whether the seeds planted in the lunar soil would germinate, but - as Paul said - "we were surprised and did not expect that," as it turned out that the lunar soil did not interrupt the hormones and signals that enter into plant germination.

According to the statement, the growth of plants on the soil of the moon was weaker than on the soil of the earth, and they were also slower and smaller in size, and in general their roots were more dwarfed, and they showed signs of stress, such as the small size of the leaves and their black color tinged with a dark red tinge, something that is not Normal for healthy growing plants.

The plants grown on the soil of the moon also showed genetic signs indicating this stress, similar to the consequences of the plant's interactions with salt and minerals, which are exposed to oxidation processes.

That plant growth was a "wonderful thing" for the research team, as the university's statement described.

"Seeing plants grow is an achievement because it means we can go to the moon and grow our food, clean our air and recycle our water using plants the same way we use it here on Earth," says Ferrell.