Posted on 04/17/2008 3:56:07 PM PDT by blam
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 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.
advertisementHe 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.”
Have they taken into account the effect of gamma-rays?
/johnny
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 1:20pm GMT 10/03/2008
Plans are being made for the first experiments to pave the way for a "doomsday ark" on the moon.
The lunar databank would eventually be manned
The ark would contain DNA, embryos and all the essentials of life and civilisation, to be activated should Earth be devastated by a giant asteroid, a climate flip or nuclear holocaust.
The information bank would provide survivors on Earth with a remote-access toolkit to rebuild the human race, said Bernard Foing, the executive director of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG).
A basic version of the ark would contain hard discs holding DNA sequences and instructions for metal smelting and planting crops. It would be buried in a vault just under the lunar surface, where it would be tended by robots.
Transmitters would send the data to heavily protected receivers on Earth in the event of a catastrophe. If no receivers survived, the ark would continue transmitting the information until new ones could be built.
advertisementThe vault could later be extended to include natural material such as microbes, animal embryos and plant seeds, as well as cultural relics such as surplus museum items.
As a first step to discovering whether living organisms could survive in the vault, European Space Agency (ESA) scientists are hoping to experiment with bacterial ecosystems and plants within the next decade, says Dr Foing, who is also the lead scientist for the ESA's SMART-1 lunar mission.
The first flowers - tulips or arabidopsis, a plant widely used in research - could be grown in 2012 or 2015. Tulips are ideal because they can be frozen, transported long distances and grown with little nourishment. Combined with algae, an enclosed artificial atmosphere and chemically enhanced lunar soil, they could form the basis of an ecosystem.
"Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah's ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere," added Dr Foing.
The scientists envisage placing the first experimental databank on the moon no later than 2020 and it could have a lifespan of 30 years. The full archive would be launched by 2035.
The databank would need to be buried under rock to protect it from the extreme temperatures, radiation and vacuum on the moon. It would be run partly on solar power.
The information would be held in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish and would be linked by transmitter to 4,000 "Earth repositories" that would provide shelter, food and water for survivors.
Dr Foing says that although there is no evidence that an asteroid is currently on a collision course with Earth, craters on Earth and the moon "indicate that asteroid strikes have occurred often" over the lifetime of the solar system.
"The damage to the Earth's environment from a large impact can be catastrophic, with fatal consequences for life. It is widely believed that the dinosaurs went extinct because of such an impact event 65 million years ago."
"But to develop a true Noah's Ark, we eventually would need to bring people to the moon. Only humans could do all the things necessary to successfully operate a genetic laboratory.
"On Earth we are already investigating several activities such as genetic sequencing, cloning, and stem cell research. Our lunar scientists could adapt that technology - cultivating cells, storing them, and doing experiments to ensure that embryology works on the moon."
Construction of the ark was discussed last month by William Burrough and Jim Burke at a symposium on "Space Solutions to Earth's Global Challenges" at the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France.
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Are there some Marigold recipes I am unaware of? I can understand not planting corn as we need it for fuel on earth but Flowers? As a taxpayer, I don’t want to see frigging flowers planted on the moon.
Obscure reference to the Zindel play, but it’s the first thing I thought of, too.
Yeah, let's go to the Moon to eat marigolds, tulips and cabbage.
Sounds like a great salad for Al Gore, I'll pass.
That’ll will only last until the snails arrive. Snails will devore marigolds.
I’m going to ship a large box of Pine Cones to Algore to use as TP. From old growth trees, of course.
Obviously they would be grown INDOORS.
If you ate that combination, you probably would “pass” so to speak. ;-)
i love this site.
Where else can a person discuss flowers on the moon, serpentine over to take an ALgore shot, a crack at biofuels, and show the idiocy of the left in one thread?
Can they grow arugula? Thats what the uppity elitist eat you.
I suggest a stoner to work on the growing project? I’ve seen them grow weed in the darnedest places.
Another option would be a owl, but suspect that would be a little too soft.
Maybe a porcupine instead?
Will they be “Man in the Moon” marigolds?
Back in high school we had a guy up the street who was growing pot near the power lines, he complained they didn't do so well because of some electric field.
He may have been right. ;-D
Sending the stoners to the Moon could serve two purposes.
If a stoner was in charge they’d be sending up boxes of Cheerios and planting them as Doughnut seeds. ;-)
“Oh no, not again.”
marigold’s last thought.
/johnny/
Marigolds smell too bad to eat..Even bugs avoid them.
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