One day, astronauts may make and consume some asteroid-made salad.
Researchers said in their latest research mention that plants for romaine lettuce, chili peppers, and pink radish thrived in peat moss and synthetic asteroid soil mixes.
The scientists have detailed their study, "CI Asteroid Regolith as an In Situ Plant Growth Medium for Space Crop Production," in the Planetary Science Journal.
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Asteroids Contain Nutrients Needed For Farming
The most essential requirement for human survival is food. Depending on the type of soil present on the Earth's surface, we can plant a variety of crops. Nation World News noted that studies and initiatives are being made to determine whether food can be cultivated in space.
Astronauts spend a lot of time in space working on their missions and learning new things, and they continuously require healthy food to stay alive. A supply of packaged food from Earth is how astronauts get their meals. However, this is a poor source of nutrition, especially for long-distance trips.
"Asteroids are an abundant space resource and should not be overlooked when considering crewed missions," Steven Russell and his colleagues said in the study. "In particular, the primordial CI carbonaceous asteroids are of interest because the regolith is suggested to contain soluble elemental nutrients, such as phosphorous and potassium, that crops can use for growth and development."
Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites may contain moisture and volatile sources, especially water, which is essential for plant growth, The Tech Outlook reported. Meteorites seem to contain necessary agricultural resources, researchers said. These include nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. According to scientists, these Cl asteroids can supply enough nutrients for space farming.
How Researchers Experimented Asteroid Soil
Fieber-Beyer handed her graduate student, Russell, a substance she had purchased that resembles the makeup of space pebbles and told them to "grow some plants," the researcher said, per Science News.
Russell, currently a University of Wisconsin-Madison astrobiologist, chose a variety of radish lettuce and chili pepper and tried to grow it on fictitious asteroid soil using peat moss and other combinations.
He, Fieber-Beyer, and his University of North Dakota colleague Kathryn Yurkonis studied how the plants developed in pure peat moss, pure fake asteroid soil, and various mixtures of the two.
According to the researchers, each species responded differently to each treatment. Despite having a high pH, the asteroid-based simulant had little in the way of plant-useable nutrients and had limited cation exchange.
The simulated asteroid soil-grown trousers, however, were more vulnerable to stress brought on by dryness.
They used peat moss to maintain the soil loose and retain water, preventing it from drying out too quickly and causing drought damage to crops.
Despite their inability to retain water as would be predicted, the plants were seen to flourish in such a setting.
Scientists, however, are not discouraged by this. Instead, they believe it will create a new pathway for space farming.
Vetch seedlings will be attempted to grow by Fieber-Beyer and the crew using fake asteroid dirt and dead plant mix.
The astroecologist is attempting to improve the soil's capacity to retain water. Since seeds weigh less than peat moss mixture, researchers said they would choose other seeds the next time.
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