Regolith Ideas, Tips & Guides

Header image: Rob Ferl, left, and Anna-Lisa Paul looking at the plates filled part with lunar soil and part with control soils, now under LED growing lights. At the time, the scientists did not know if the seeds would even germinate in lunar soil. Credits: UF/IFAS photo by Tyler Jones

Jessica Atkins of Texas A&M University and Sara Oliveira Santos at Brown University have published preliminary results suggesting that commonly used gardening techniques could help grow chickpeas on the Moon.

Header image: Nicotiana benthamiana seedlings growing in simulated lunar soil in a laboratory at the China Agricultural University in Beijing. Image credit: Yitong Xia via REUTERS. 

BBC News has an interesting article this morning about scientists that have managed to grow marigolds in crushed moon rock. Apparently with the right combination of bacteria they can extract the nutrients they need from the rock. Which, in my mind, proves that organic gardening is the way to go – it’s the only method that preserves the soil ecosystem that plants obviously rely on to thrive.

When Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for humankind in 45 years ago, he got covered in Moon dust. Throughout the Apollo missions, dust was an issue. Fine but rough, it caused problems with the space suits, and created mini dust storms in the cabin once the landers launched back into space.

Growing lettuce on the Moon is a step closer, as a French start-up has successfully grown lettuce in simulated lunar soil.

After safely landing on the Sea of Tranquility on the evening of 20th July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had bacon for breakfast before heading out onto the Moon in the early hours of 21st July. (Note that, unlike the Command Module, the Lunar Module (Eagle) only had cold water supplies.) It was Neil Armstrong, of course, who nipped out of first, saying his immortal line as he stepped onto the surface.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners off World! On 15 February, the NG-13 cargo ship blasted off from NASA Wallops on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). It arrived on 18 February, where NASA astronaut Drew Morgan caught it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Header image: Laser Zentrum Hannover is also looking at lunar 3D printing. LZH

Last year sometime, I found the National Space Centre’s recipe for edible meteorites. We thought it would be fun to give it a go, but decided that making meteorite shapes would be too much of a faff, so we made it in a tray. We liked it so much we’ve made it lots of time since and tweaked the recipe a bit. We call it our rocky regolith, as it’s like Rocky Road but there are no roads in space!

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World, a weekly round-up of news and entertainment for people who rather fancy getting their hands dirty on another planet!

On 24th July 1969, at 16:50 UTC, Apollo 11 splashed down in the north Pacific, about 900 miles south west of Hawaii.

Welcome to Gardeners off World, my weekly round-up of the exciting world of interplanetary gardening!

It has been a momentous week for space news, with the USA announcing its new Space Force insignia. It’s very much like the old Air Force Space Command insignia, and also very much like the Star Trek logo, which had the internet in stitches. And this just days after they announced their new uniform, and it became apparent that they would be going about their business in a totally appropriate woodland camouflage pattern.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma takes the time machine for a spin to explore the early history of seeds in space. Plus you’ll find out which plants will be best for terraforming Mars, why greenhouses may soon be made from solar panels, what’s included in a Russian space tourist package and more!

Gardeners of the Galaxy is celebrating its second birthday! So join Emma the Space Gardener as she chats with Dr Anna-Lisa Paul of the UF Space Plants Lab, one of the astrobotanists behind the recent groundbreaking experiments growing the first ever plants on real Moon soil. Anna-Lisa also talks about her wide-ranging experiences, from being an analog astronaut to flying with her plants on the vomit comet, and chooses a Fantasy Space Plant specially designed for growing off-world.

Monica Grady, The Open University

Header image: Mars’ asteroid-sized satellites Deimos and Phobos. Image credit: ESA

Header image: An artist concept depicts a greenhouse on the surface of Mars. Plants are growing with the help of red, blue and green LED light bars and a hydroponic cultivation approach. Image credit: SAIC

A private 10-day mission to the International Space Station is due to launch in March 2022. SpaceX Axiom Space-1 (AX-1) will carry four private astronauts, including Eytan Stibbe, who will become the second Israeli in space. (The first Israeli in space, Ilan Ramon, sadly died in the Columbia disaster).

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she talks to Dr Wieger Wamelink about how he became a space farmer, his experiments growing plants on Moon and Mars soil simulants, the importance of developing off-world ecosystems, and whether we can bring pet chickens to Mars!

Astronauts in space don’t have to worry much about furniture. There’s nowhere to sit down on the International Space Station (ISS), as (a) it’s really impossible to sit down in microgravity and (b) without gravity, you don’t really feel the need to sit down. So the crew just float, tucking their feet into restraints if they need to stay in one place. So although the ISS does have a small dining table, it doesn’t have any chairs, and there are no beds.

If we want to create a permanent presence in space, on the Moon or Mars, we need to learn how to use the resources we find there. Space people call it “in-situ resource utilisation”; on Earth, it would just be “living off the land”. It’s just not practical or sustainable to completely supply those missions from Earth.