Astronauts would possibly someday dine on salad grown in asteroid soil.
Romaine lettuce, chili pepper and pink radish crops all grew in mixtures of peat moss and pretend asteroid soil, researchers report within the July Planetary Science Journal.
Scientists have beforehand grown crops in lunar grime (SN: 5/23/22). But the brand new research focuses on “carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, known to be rich in volatile sources — water especially,” says astroecologist Sherry Fieber-Beyer of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. These meteorites, and their dad or mum asteroids, are additionally wealthy in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus — key agricultural vitamins. Pulverizing a majority of these asteroids, maybe as a part of house mining efforts, might doubtlessly present a prepared provide of farming materials in house.
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Fieber-Beyer bought a fabric that mimics the house rocks’ composition and gave it to her graduate scholar Steven Russell. “I said, ‘All right, grow me some plants.’”
Russell, now an astrobiologist on the University of Wisconsin–Madison, selected a kind of radish, lettuce and chili pepper — all of which have grown aboard the International Space Station. He, Fieber-Beyer and their colleague Kathryn Yurkonis, additionally of the University of North Dakota, in contrast how the crops grew in solely fake asteroid soil, solely peat moss and varied mixes of the 2.
Peat moss retains soil unfastened and improves water retention. In all mixtures with peat moss, the crops grew. Faux asteroid soil by itself, nevertheless, compacted and couldn’t retain water, and so crops couldn’t develop.
Next, Fieber-Beyer will strive rising bushy vetch seeds in that fake asteroid grime, let the crops decay after which combine the useless plant matter all through the soil. That, she says, might make sure that the soil doesn’t compact. Plus, seeds weigh so much lower than peat moss, making them simpler to hold to house to assist with any future farming makes an attempt.