To Infinity and Beyond

New Year's is always an exciting time for me of reflection. A reset. A chance to look at possibilities with renewed enthusiasm.

Today I am looking far beyond our political landscape and the blitz of social media resolutions. This was an article from 6 months back that piqued my attention. A literal world of possibilities where outer space meets my joy of gardening.

For decades we have been pondering the question of what life lies beyond us out in the grand universe. Our Superheroes and literature continue to ask those questions for us. But maybe instead of looking at other human life, we should start with something much smaller like plants.

Starting in May of this year, the University of Florida has begun growing crops in lunar soil from recent expeditions. It is scientifically called lunar regolith - meaning it is a biologically active dust or crushed rock that is able to support vegetation. Under the name of the Artemis Program, it seems our second phase of Space Exploration is continuing. We are taking baby steps in terms of human colonies on the Moon!

These soils have been sampled in the past, but never moved forward into actual fertilization. The primary concern originally was what other additional and unknown pathogens might be in the soils and then transmitted to plant life.

The plants being grown are Arabidopsis which is in the rockcress family of cabbage or wild mustard! What makes it optimal is that there are only 8-9 varieties of the plant AND it has a simple enough genetic structure that it has been mapped completely. This allows scientists to look at the fertilized seedlings and note if there is any mutation occurring. Almost all seeds planted, sprouted which was a surprise. This means there is nothing in the soil that suppresses germination. However, there was much variation from plant to plant in terms of strength and size. This can be one of two things. Either the plants are just adapting to whatever stress those soils may be giving to their normal growing cycle. Or it can be random to where the Moon soils were gathered from. Just as we have different Earth soils and climate zones that can certainly impact how well any plant grows.

The Moon is a very dry place and much needs to be discovered before it could ever be something where our Earth species thrive there in a greenhouse as we know it. But the question is now out there that future generations may not only travel there, but also be able to farm the land long term. Of course, this could also be a Little Shop of Horrors where we end up with an invasive species whose mission it is to overtake the Earth. Happy New Year!