Scientist to Grow Marigold on the Moon

VamPyroX

VamPyroX

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I'll grow marigolds on the moon, says scientist

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 4:01pm BST 17/04/2008

Marigolds could be growing on the moon by around 2015, if an ambitious effort by scientists pays off.

In what marks an important step towards helping lunar colonists grow their own food, a Ukrainian team, working with the European Space Agency, ESA, has shown that marigolds can grow in crushed rock very like the lunar surface, with no need for plant food.

Marigolds can grow on the moon
Marigolds were shown to survive in crushed rock

The research was presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, by Dr Bernard Foing of ESA, director of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group, and father of the SMART-1 moon probe, who believes it is an important milestone because it does away with the need to bring bringing nutrients and soil from Earth.

He has worked with Natasha Kozyrovska and Iryna Zaetz from the Ukranian Academy of Sciences in Kiev, who planted marigolds in crushed anorthosite, a type of rock found on Earth which is very similar to lunar soil, called regolith.

They did not grow well until the team added different types of bacteria, which made them thrive; the bacteria appeared to leach elements from the rock that the plants needed, such as potassium.

Even better, bacteria are able to withstand extremely tough conditions, so would be an ideal way to fertilise lunar crops. “That is the new aspect of this work,” says Dr Foing, who presented the study at the EGU meeting, said there was no reason in principle why the same idea could not bear fruit on the Moon itself.
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He is pinning his hopes on a ESA proposal for a mission called Moon Next, which would probably deploy a roving vehicle in about 2015, or on a subsequent Lunar Logistics Lander, scheduled for 2016-17.

As well as marigolds, he says that tulips, cabbages and arabidopsis (a weed, the most studied plant on the planet) could be grown on the moon.

Tulips are handy because they can be frozen, transported long distances and grown with little nourishment. Combined with algae, an enclosed artificial atmosphere and the bacterially enhanced lunar soil, they could form the basis of a precursor lunar “ecosystem.”
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I'll grow marigolds on the moon, says scientist - Telegraph

If this were to succeed, imagine the Moon becoming another green planet! ;)
 
Many people will overlook this thread, because they're not interested, don't care, or think it's complete BS. I can only say that for those others out there that realize we need to expand beyond our planet for our race to survive, that this is just another example of an oxygen source for humans to breathe on another landmass in our solar system. There was a movie a few years ago called "Mission to Mars" and the one guy survived on the planet for 1 year because the plants in the greenhouse gave him oxygen and food. While the movie may have been a little far-fetched, and the end of the movie was totally 'out there'... the concept of the plants providing the oxygen a human would need to survive is real.

For the human race to expand to other planets, our moon is the first step, because it is the closest. If we had a colony on the moon and problems developed, it would only take a couple weeks for rescue to get there as opposed to 6 months minimum with our current abilities to get to Mars.

While I personally fully support our military, and everything it is doing right now.... Previous government administration (namely Clinton and his presidency, not to mention his totally busting the 'Dot Com' era) almost completely wiped out our nation's military. Throughout it all, NASA's funding is just a tiny fraction of our nation's military budget, even back through the cold war, even though I feel that it would be more important.

It is only during the last 20 years or so that we have realized that life on our planet could easily be wiped out again (it has happened at least 3 times before) by an asteroid or comet hitting the earth, and what if it happened 10 years from now, or even sooner? Even if it's not us still alive, wouldn't we want our children to have a chance to survive? Or if this planet got totally wiped out and our children were still here, wouldn't we at least want our race to survive?

Our race's biggest fear 20 years ago was nuclear annihilation in the Cold War, 10 years ago we were just coming to grips with the fact that America doesn't have to worry about Russia so much anymore but we have new/old worry from outer space. Now we know we're living on borrowed time, and if we found out tomorrow that there is a comet that will hit this planet in 10 years, we have a slight chance that one of our many theoretical plans could save us. If that comet suddenly appeared from behind the sun, we would have only a few months until oblivion.

We have to expand to other planetary masses, and our moon is the first obvious choice. In our expansion into space, plants are extremely important as they are what has given our whole race and everything before us, the oxygen it has needed to survive. Given this knowledge, shouldn't we already be trying to grow plants on the moon? I personally think we should be trying to at the very least be starting greenhouses on the moon, and then on Mars, in advance of our race's expansion to those planetary masses.

Just MHO
 
I think that is so interesting! But, will we EVER live on the moon? I mean, we have the technology, but our wonderful governments will be fighting to be the FIRST.... *sigh*
 
DragonYoga said:
I think that is so interesting! But, will we EVER live on the moon? I mean, we have the technology, but our wonderful governments will be fighting to be the FIRST.... *sigh*
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One thing that would be very different... gravity!

Unless, they develop artificial gravity on the moon as well. ;)
 
Right, Vampy. If something isn't developed to take care of the gravity problem, might as well leave the Guinness World Book of Records here on earth, lol....
 
Tousi said:
Right, Vampy. If something isn't developed to take care of the gravity problem, might as well leave the Guinness World Book of Records here on earth, lol....
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unless they had the back up of records on cd? heh..
 
that's not a good thing to do with the moon. it would affect the tides here on earth and everything would be all messed up. no light from the moon at night or anything if it became green. too strange. i think people should leave nature alone as what its supposed to be instead of trying to alter it.
 
Tousi said:
Right, Vampy. If something isn't developed to take care of the gravity problem, might as well leave the Guinness World Book of Records here on earth, lol....
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They would probably develop a bigger book called "Guinness Book of Universe Records" and it will come with major chapters... one for each planet.

Chapter 1: Mercury
Chapter 2: Venus
Chapter 3: Earth
Chapter 4: Mars
Chapter ...

The first step will probably be "Guinness Book of World Records: The Moon Edition". Later, a new formal title will be "Guinness Book of Moon Records" that sells separately. When we eventually occupy other planets or establish new things, then we might make more books for them as well. ;)
 
Wasn't there a play called "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds?"
 
I am sure I've seen a picture that shows the zone where humans are liveable and it was only the Earth in that zone, which moon are include too.. Probably it's possible for the moon to be a liveable place? That would be wonderful experience!
 
Far-fetched ..But it could happen... when i was young... I doubted that a man would walk on the moon.... It did happened .... anything strange out there could happen.. since we now have better technology....
 
I remember a story where the person came back to Earth after living on the moon and as they exited their ship they collapsed to flatness and died because the lack of gravity on the moon had thinned their bones. So I guess we would need artificial gravity dome to colonize there.
 
Bottesini said:
I remember a story where the person came back to Earth after living on the moon and as they exited their ship they collapsed to flatness and died because the lack of gravity on the moon had thinned their bones. So I guess we would need artificial gravity dome to colonize there.
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Eh? No one has ever lived on the Moon yet.
 
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