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Growing Plants on the Moon
by Tom (admin) 
A cool article Thursday April 17th titled Plants thrive on Moon rock diet. In short the scientists took crushed anorthosite a type of rock similar to rock on lunar surface and planted marigolds in it. The marigolds didn't do very well in the plain anorthosite. But in the anorthosite that they added bacteria to, the marigolds grew very well. Apparently the bacteria extracted minerals from the anorthosite such as phosphate that the plants were able to use.
As a proof of concept this is great news, especially in light of Peter's In Focus article in the Moon Miner's Manifesto about breaking the umbilical cord. Being able to build a habitat that is as free as possible from the need of major resupply missions from Earth is a must for long-term outposts on the Moon and Mars. Remember microbes are our friends, even Earth would be an unpleasant place to try and survive with them.
Extending this research would be a good space enthusiasts project. Grinding up various kinds of rock and figuring out what minimally needs to be added to make the 'soil' plant friendly.
-Tom Greenwalt tomg@mnsfs.org
04/18/08 02:07:44 am, 
1 comment
One of the things we can do is compost human and kitchen wastes and add that back into the soil.
One problem that has been foreseen is that the considerable fraction of ultra-fine powder could quickly clog up the drainage systems. We might want to determine the size poin below which we want to sift the fine stuff out.
An experiment with real moon dust showed that heating it to a point I forget, turns a fraction of it inot zeolites which are good at storing nutirients.
All the macrinutrients needed are there, and about half the micronutrients.
One way to import the needed missing elements would be to find a way to make stuffing material (think cardboard dividers, styrofoam peanuts etc.) out of a mix that included these nutrients so that this can be chopped up and added to the soil.
In contrast, pure hydroponics which are beloved by those who think that soil farming is a thing of the past, is that we'd have to import the nutrient solutions. Unless we can learn to make those on the Moon also, using the ammendments suggested above.
Some worry that the angular particles in moondust would be ruough on plants. I doubt that, but they may be rough on the intestines of earthworjms, slugs, and nemotodes, some of which are desirable.
Amazon.com link for the book (UW-Madison)
Lunar Base Agriculture: Soils for Plant Growth
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0891181008/sr=1-1/qid=1154725465/ref=sr_1_1/102-5936348-9380133?ie=UTF8&s=books
For the Lunar Reclamation Society supported LUNAX project of the early 1990s, see
www.lunax.org
The Moon Society is in the process of designing a Lunar Analog Research Station facility, and agricultural experiments would play a big role.
For a PPT presentation which shows how we are thinking (a work in progress) download "Analog Moonbase Proposal" from this page
http://www.moonsociety.org/spreadtheword/ppt/
Peter Kokh
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