Scientists at the University of Florida have managed to grow plants in soil collected from the moon by NASA astronauts. Researchers were earlier unsure of the fact that plants could grow on moon dirt, popularly known as regolith.

Regolith is usually brought back to Earth after every moon mission to study it in-depth with state-of-the-art equipment. Fifty years after the Apollo-11 mission, three of the samples brought by the astronauts then have been used to successfully grow plants.

For this NASA-funded experiment, the researchers used just 12 grams of lunar soil collected from Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions.

By day 16, there were clear physical differences between plants grown in the volcanic ash lunar simulant, left, compared with those grown in the lunar soil, right. (Credits: UF/IFAS photo by Tyler Jones via Nasa)

“This research is critical to NASA’s long-term human exploration goals as we’ll need to use resources found on the Moon and Mars to develop food sources for future astronauts living and operating in deep space,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“This fundamental plant growth research is also a key example of how NASA is working to unlock agricultural innovations that could help us understand how plants might overcome stressful conditions in food-scarce areas here on Earth.”

Scientists at the University of Florida made a breakthrough discovery after decades of study and hard work. This landmark experiment, detailed in the journal Communications Biology has given hope that plants could be grown on the lunar surface.

The study concluded that these plants were not robust as plants grown in Earth soil. The researchers are further hoping that these findings will pave the way for growing more nutrient-rich plants on the lunar surface.

“To explore further and to learn about the solar system we live in, we need to take advantage of what’s on the Moon, so we don’t have to take all of it with us,” said Jacob Bleacher, the Chief Exploration Scientist supporting NASA’s Artemis program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Highlighting plans to further study Earth's sole satellite, he pointed out that NASA is sending robotic missions to the largely unexplored Moon’s South Pole.