Scientists have grown plants for the first time in the soil brought from the moon, an important achievement in the field of space

From inventing fire and the wheel to reaching the moon, man has achieved many great achievements. Another record has been added to this list of achievements. Indeed, for the first time, scientists have succeeded in growing plants in soil brought from the Moon. These soils brought astronauts to the Apollo missions. It is seen as a huge step forward in efforts to create food and oxygen on the Moon or for future space missions.

Researchers from the University of Florida in the US have shown that plants can grow and develop successfully even in the soil of the Moon. Their study, published in the journal Communications Biology, also examined how plants biologically respond to lunar soil. The soil of the Moon, also called 'Lunar Regolith', is very different from the soil found on Earth.

This research has come at a time when NASA's Artemis program is once again preparing to send humans to the Moon. One of the authors of this research, Rob Furl, said that Artemis will need to better understand the process of growing plants in space. Robb is also a professor at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Moon could become our launch pad in future

He said that for future and long-duration space missions, we may have to use the Moon as a center or launching pad. In such a situation, it is completely logical that we would like to use the same soil which is already present there to grow plants. The researchers did a simple experiment. They planted seeds in the soil of the Moon, watered, provided sunlight and nutrients, and recorded the results. He had only 12 grams of soil to do this research.

This soil, taken as a loan from NASA, was collected during the Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 missions. Researchers applied three times over a period of 11 years to work on lunar soil. After this research has come to the fore, it is believed that food and oxygen, which are included in the biggest needs for settling humans on the moon, can now be met. It is considered a revolutionary discovery in the field of space.