UF researchers study how to grow food on the moon

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Published  November 25, 2024 10:25pm EST
FOX 13 News
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University of Florida 'Moon Colony'

Craig Patrick reports

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The University of Florida is helping NASA build a permanent moon colony. In 2025, as NASA plans to fly astronauts around the moon, UF is already growing plants in moon soil and it could pay off in Florida and beyond. 

NASA has a plan to send astronauts back to the moon and develop a permanent human colony on it. To survive, they’ll need water to drink, air to breathe, and food to eat. The discovery of ice beneath the moon’s surface takes care of the need for water and oxygen. But when it comes to food, growing it in lunar soil is especially difficult – but it can be done. 

We know this because UF researchers are already doing it, in soil samples brought back to Earth by Apollo Astronauts.  

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: University of Florida researchers successfully grow plants in lunar soil

UF Research Professor Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul says it took the seeds longer to grow, and they did not grow as large as seeds planted in Earth-soil, but they still grew – and revealed the potential.

UF researchers are studying how to grow food on the moon. 

"First time any kind of plant, any kind of biology has grown in extraterrestrial materials like this.  So, it is a pretty, pretty stunning kind of experiment to be able to do," said Dr. Paul.

Dr. Rob Ferl, a UF professor who flew into space aboard a Blue Origin mission in August, says his team is now working on ways to alter the plants to grow faster and larger in moon soil – and eventually on the moon itself.

"For us, the first message is, 'Holy cow, plants can grow in lunar soil,’" Ferl exclaimed.  "And besides that, we've now learned that there are some things we'll have to know and be able to do better if we want to grow crops."

UF researchers have grown plants in lunar soil. 

Professors Ferl and Paul are now conducting experiments on how plants and other biological organisms are affected as they go into space.  

Their experiments will help scientists develop plants that can be harvested beyond Earth and help us understand how the transition from Earth to space affects human biology.

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