But this still does not mean that growing plants in space will be easy * Among other things, the addition of bacteria was required
Scientists working for the European Space Agency (ESA) have said that the day when flowers will bloom on the moon is approaching. The team showed that cat's claws can grow in crushed rock very similar to that in the lunar soil, and no special additives would be required.
The new research was presented at the meeting of the European Geosciences Union that is currently taking place in Vienna. This is the largest annual meeting of scientists studying the Earth, its climate and its neighbors in space.
Some see growing plants on the moon as an important step towards human settlement. But the European Space Agency denies this and says that it is science fiction. Bernard Poing, a senior scientist at the European Center for Space Research and Technology (Estec) in the Netherlands, believes that growing plants on the moon may be a useful tool to learn how life will adapt to lunar conditions, and as a useful means of establishing a lunar colony.
"We will have to bring water and irrigation and sewage treatment systems there, which are required anyway for the life support system," Poing told the BBC website. It will also be a test site to test the ability of simple living things to survive in an extreme environment.
The idea is to place kits containing substrate, cotton wool and food materials on the moon and give them only a supply of water and an artificial atmosphere. This would be only slightly different from growing plants on the space station, which has been done several times already, although outside the Earth's protective magnetic field the plants would be exposed to higher levels of radiation.
Natasha Kozyrovska and Irina Zeits from the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv planted marigolds in anorthosite - a type of rock found on Earth and which is very similar in composition to that in the soil of the Moon. In pure aneuritis the plants developed at a poor level, but the addition of different types of bacteria made them thrive. It shows that the bacteria were able to extract from the soil elements that the plant needs, such as potassium.
Poing, who presented the research at the EGU conference, said that there is no principled reason why this idea would not allow growing plants on the moon itself. The tools will include ground lunar rocks, bacteria and seeds, but he added that it will be necessary to select plants and bacteria suitable for lunar conditions or to develop new varieties.
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I would bet on it.
straw man,
It is not delusional to think with a life based on another substance. The chances of that are simply very low. In general, water has really good properties:
It is not very complex and quite common - a total of two relatively light elements, which are quite abundant in the universe.
It is polar, so it is a good solvent, many substances dissolve in it, so it allows them to be transported easily
These are just two that I know for sure are important to life, I'm sure there are others, like its viscosity, the temp range in which it's liquid, and maybe the density as well, but I'm not sure about the explanation of why they do matter.
It is therefore an ideal solvent for life. It's possible cold/hot stars for example, would have different fluid based animals, but again, I wouldn't bet on it.
Can't find a way to eliminate water dependence?
It seems that water is always presented as synonymous with life. The eye looks strange to me. Why is it so delusional to think of a life that works with the help of another liquid substance in which the metabolic processes are carried out?
I read about it on the BBC website. (on their mobile site), sounds like a groundbreaking experiment. Everyone will agree that it is better to make a mistake here, than to make a mistake on the moon.
The Ukrainian team tested the capabilities of absorbing substances by various plants from the lunar soil. What is learned on Earth can be a starting shot for a similar project on the Moon (although it is not in sight for now).