Hardy Earth Bacteria Can Grow In Lunar Soil

New Scientist ^ | 3-14-2008 | David Shiga

[blam]

Hardy Earth bacteria can grow in lunar soil

00:53 14 March 2008
NewScientist.com news service
David Shiga, Houston

A hardy life form called cyanobacteria can grow in otherwise inhospitable lunar soil, new experiments suggest. Future colonists on the Moon might be able to use the cyanobacteria to extract resources from the soil that could be used to make rocket fuel and fertiliser for crops.

NASA plans to send astronauts back to the Moon starting in 2020, with the ultimate aim of setting up a permanent lunar base. Sustaining such a base will be a major challenge, because it is so costly to fly food, fuel and other supplies there with rockets launched from Earth. Every kilogram of resources that could be produced on the Moon itself could therefore help cut costs, making such a base easier to maintain.

That is where cyanobacteria and their amazing abilities come in. Cyanobacteria grow in water-rich environments. They are technically a type of bacteria, but like plants, they produce their own food via photosynthesis. (Sometimes called 'blue-green algae', cyanobacteria are actually not related to the algae they resemble.)

Lunar soil is inhospitable to plants because many of the nutrients it contains are locked up in tough minerals that the plants cannot break down. "It will not be able to support the growth of tomatoes" or other food plants, says Igor Brown of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, US.

But experiments led by Brown show that some cyanobacteria are perfectly happy growing on lunar soil, if supplied with water, air and light.

Brown and his colleagues tried growing a variety of species of cyanobacteria on materials designed to approximate the lunar soil. The simulated soil contained lots of an iron-titanium mineral called ilmenite, for example,

[Charles Martel]

Rats. Now we can’t test the Genesis Device there.

[Resolute Conservative]

Funny how we went to the moon in about 8 years after we decided to go the first time and it will take 13 more to get back there. Law of diminishing returns in or education system in relation to graduating engineers, overly cautious, or money constraints. I say #2, with a little #1.

[allmendream]

“some cyanobacteria are perfectly happy growing on lunar soil, if supplied with water, air and light.”

Light shouldn't be a problem. Free from the sun. Air and water however is an expensive proposition on the moon.

Can ‘air’ be made by breaking down moon rock? Can we free enough Nitrogen and Oxygen from lunar soil so that we don't have to haul it all up from Earth? Any Chemists out there who can tell us?

[allmendream]

The first time we went to the Moon our national interests were WAY on the line because of sputnik. This time it is more ‘gee wiz, wouldn't it be cool if...” and it is less of a priority. MOON BASE! Imagine how cheap satellite signaling will be if you could launch from the moon. No more unstable low decaying orbits either.

[Ancesthntr]

Funny how we went to the moon in about 8 years after we decided to go the first time and it will take 13 more to get back there. Law of diminishing returns in or education system in relation to graduating engineers, overly cautious, or money constraints. I say #2, with a little #1.

I noticed that, too. But its worse - this time we KNOW that it can be done, and a lot of the groundwork has been done. Back in '61, much of the certainty and much of the needed knowledge was just not there.

I think that its because we don't use any more German rocket scientists. They were used to doing things fast - or else - from the V-2 days. Seriously, there's no race against the Russkies anymore, its like the old hat that I got for my father one Father's Day: Dad Tours - we'll get there when we get there.

[dragnet2]

Blast out some massive caves with a nuclear weapon or two, that could be used for indirect sunlight, and go to the limbs where dark and sunlight meet... I personally believe in a hundred years or so, we could actually developed some type of atmosphere, or go way underground...See what's there.

If the moon is product of ejected material from a massive impact of an object into the earth, then it would be quite interesting to go down several hundred feet or a few miles to see what that's all about.

[allmendream]

Gravity on the moon is way to low to hold an atmosphere, but underground or domes seems the way to go for holding atmosphere where this bacteria water and sunlight could go to work breaking down minerals and building up cyanobacteria that could be fed to something else that could be harvested for food or energy.

[dragnet2]

Gravity on the moon is way to low to hold an atmosphere

Yep, with our current technology and as things are right now. Who knows what will be developed in the next 100 years or or so to provide some type of atmosphere or gravitational fix.

In fact, I would not be surprised if in a couple of hundred years or so, the solar energy striking the lunar surface could power the entire earth. The possibilities are there.