Scientists grew thale cress seeds in moon dust brought back by three Apollo missions. Credit: University of FloridaFood has been grown in soil collected from the Moon for the first time, paving the way for human colonization of the solar system.
Scientists from the University of Florida have cultivated cress in dirt, or regolith, that had been kept since the Apollo missions—a half-century ago. It is a first step towards producing food and oxygen on the Moon or during future space missions.
The team planted seeds in lunar soil picked up by the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 crews between 1969 and 1972. They added water, nutrients, and light before watching the edible spring salad green flourish.
A tiny “lunar garden” was created from just a few teaspoons of the prized dirt specially loaned from NASA. Researchers were granted 12 grams after 11 years of negotiations with the space agency. Thimble-sized wells on plastic plates normally used to culture cells were filled with a gram of lunar soil.
They were moistened with a cocktail of nutrients. Then, a few seeds of cress were added to each pot. The horticulturalists weren’t sure if they would sprout, but nearly all of them did.
