Cultivated in imitation soil mixed with peat moss… Promoting alternative experiments with Hairribechi
[Steven. J. Russell et al 2022 Planet. Sci. J. 3 155 제공/ 재판매 및 DB 금지] photo@yna.co.kr
Following ‘regolith’, a dusty and dusty material covering the lunar surface, research results suggest that crops can be grown on carbonaceous chondrite asteroid soil.
According to ScienceNews, a scientific media outlet, a research team led by University of North Dakota space ecologist Sherry Fever-Buyer, in the United States, reported the results of growing plants in soil made similar to carbonaceous chondrite asteroids, which the American Astronomical Society (AAS) reported. It was published in the ‘Planetary Science Journal’, an open information access journal.
The team focused on carbonaceous chondrite asteroids because they are likely to contain water. These asteroids are also known to be rich in the three major nutrients necessary for crop cultivation, such as nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potassium.
The research team mixes ‘peat moss’ (peat moss) with mimic soil made similar to carbonaceous chondrite asteroids in varying degrees, using romaine lettuce (Latuca sativa), chili pepper (Capsicum annuum), and red radish (Raphanus). sativus) were cultivated. All of these plants were successfully cultivated in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS).
Peat moss is an organic material formed by accumulating the remnants of aquatic or wetland plants on the floor, and is known for its excellent water holding capacity and breathability.
As a result, it was found that in the mimic soil mixed with peat moss, all crops grew even though there were variations by crops, but in the imitative soil without peat moss only, the soil particles aggregated and the water could not be maintained, so plants could not grow.
The research team plans to conduct an experiment to improve the physical properties of soil like peat moss by planting and cultivating ‘hairy vetch’, a vine-like green manure crop of the legume family, in carbonaceous chondrite-mimicking soil, and then inserting the stem into the soil. If the experiment proves to be valid, hairy vetch seeds, which weigh much less than peat moss, could be used, which could give them an advantage when trying to grow crops on other asteroids.
The results of the study follow the announcement that researchers at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Science (FU/IFAS) have succeeded in germinating and cultivating baby thaliana seeds from legolis brought from the moon in May.
These attempts have important meaning as they open the way to not only directly secure food resources at the site of manned space exploration, but also to secure oxygen by using photosynthesis of plants.
[UF/IFAS photo by Tyler Jones 제공/ 재판매 및 DB 금지] photo@yna.co.kr
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