Amazing stuff! Or lunacy? Maybe next time you point your telescope to the moon you will see a green house. (just kidding)
Did the researchers also test whether these bacteria would survive the moon atmosphere or lack thereof?
"Researchers ... have figured out a way to increase the amount of soluble phosphorus in lunar soil and drastically improve its fertility using bacteria.
They used their method to grow benth (Nicotiana benthamiana) plants in a lunar soil simulant and, guess what — the plants not only grew but also developed healthy stems, roots, and leaves. ..."
From the abstract:
"In-situ utilization of lunar soil resources will effectively improve the self-sufficiency of bioregenerative life support systems for future lunar bases. Therefore, we have explored the microbiological method to transform lunar soil into a substrate for plant cultivation. In this study, five species of phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria are used as test strains, and a 21-day bio-improving experiment with another 24-day Nicotiana benthamiana cultivation experiment are carried out on lunar regolith simulant. We have observed that the phosphorus-solublizing bacteria Bacillus mucilaginosus, Bacillus megaterium, and Pseudomonas fluorescens can tolerate the lunar regolith simulant conditions and dissociate the insoluble phosphorus from the regolith simulant. The phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria treatment improves the available phosphorus content of the regolith simulant, promoting the growth of Nicotiana benthamiana. Here we demonstrate that the phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria can effectively improve the fertility of lunar regolith simulant, making it a good cultivation substrate for higher plants. The results can lay a technical foundation for plant cultivation based on lunar regolith resources in future lunar bases."
Fig. 7: The photography of partial plants in two control groups and four treatments.
No comments:
Post a Comment