Scientists The Americans have achieved something that is a breakthrough in future space missions in terms of making them more self-sufficient: they have been able to grow plants in regolith for the first time. immortalized
After several years of experiences, a team of Scientists Led by Rob Ferrell from University of FloridaGot aerospace agency United States (NASA) Give him 12 grams of dust from the moon, according to EFE.
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in it Experiment – ExperimentNorth America compared the evolution of seeds of Arabidopsis Thaliana, a watercress native to Eurasia and Africa, in lunar soil and in a few other samples of volcanic ash from groundwhich should be emphasized, have similar characteristics.
The researchers They were able to verify that plants grew in lunar soil, and found that they grew worse than they did in ground ash, so those in lunar soil took longer to grow and develop their leaves, as well as stunted roots compared to those on volcanic soil.
They emphasized that some plants are grown in dust moon They came to have a similar shape and color to that of ash, although others appeared stunted and contained black and red pigments, indicating a certain level of stress.
When was a group Scientists They conducted a genetic analysis of three young and darker plants, and were able to note that these plants contained more than a thousand genes at different levels than those in the samples that were growing in volcanic soiland they were often related to stress.
Similarly, the Scientists Infer that the plants that grew on the moon dust samples you collected Apollo 11which have been exposed for a longer time to the lunar surface, did not grow like those on the lunar surface Apollo 12 and 17apart from the fact that they differed more in plant gene expression with respect to those in volcanic land.
The Floors Apollo 11, 12, and 17 samples contain 465, 265, and 113 genes, respectively, of which only 71 percent are related to stress caused by salts, metals, and molecules that react with oxygen.
Experts concluded that cosmic rays, in addition to solar wind damage on the moon’s surface, as well as the presence of small particles of iron in this type of soil, can stimulate the stress response in plants, in addition to affecting their growth. .
authors Research Further studies will be conducted on the interaction between Floors and lunar soil, in order to achieve a breakthrough so that vegetables can eventually be grown efficiently on this type of surface.
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The entire scientific community considers the possibility of agriculture in moon An essential step for space missions to last longer than current missions, and also with the idea that astronauts can produce their own food in space without having to return to space. ground to renew it.
In fact, in January 2019 the Chinese Mission Chang’e-4, managed to grow a plant on the surface of the moon, but after eight days from Earth the plant died. This plant lived in a special container and landed on the other side of the moon On January 3 of the same year, it is believed that this miniature biosphere did not survive, because the lunar night is very cold.
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