I was once asked this question: There is now no atmosphere on the moon, but could a plant grow in moon soil that was brought back to earth, or under a glass dome on the moon?. It is a very good question. Here is my answer: All plants need to grow is light, water and nutrients. There really is no need for soils as many plants can grow straight in a nutrient solution. It´s called hydroponics. But growing in a medium like soil is how plants usually grow and some plants, like potatoes, require it. Lunar regolith could work as a growth medium if properly treated (soil is a terrestrial term as it contains lots of organic material. There are no orgnic substances in lunar regolith). Just treating the lunar regolith with water an CO2 could make it quite safe for plants. It is bound to contain alkaline oxides. Water would turn them into caustic hydroxides but CO2 would turn them into carbonates. Carbonates are not only pH neutral but they are also pH buffers and good nutrients for plants. There might be some other exotic minerals in regolith but most of it is composed of SiO2 or glass. Actually it is made up out of microscopic chards of glass that could potentially shred the cellwalls of plants. Treating the regolith with water would cause the tiniest particles to go into solution (SiO2 is not easily dissolved in water but it isn´t completely insoluable) and the bigger would be smoothed out turning them into more like sand particles. I don´t know of any tests made with actual lunar regolith and plants but I think tests made it lunarsimulant, earth soils that very much resemble lunar regolith in chemical composition, have been conducted. Of course lunar simulant is not made up out of tiny chards of glass. On the moon every molecule of water an CO2 would be extremely precious so I don´t expect any to be spent processing lunar regolith anytime soon. Instead hydroponics will be the prime method for food production on the moon in the near future.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 02:10:38 +0000
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