European Space Agency Launches 12-Month Lunar Farming Study:
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday that it's launched a new project that will help determine the feasibility of farming on the moon. The project, "Enabling Lunar In-Situ Agriculture by Producing Fertilizer from Beneficiated Regolith," will study various ways of extracting minerals from lunar soil for hydroponic farming.
[...] Lunar topsoil, otherwise known as regolith, is nutrient-dense—but that doesn't make it a suitable substrate for produce. Regolith lacks the nitrogen compounds necessary for steady plant growth; it's also hydrophobic and compacts in the presence of water, making it difficult for seedlings to establish healthy root systems. (This is likely why the University of Florida's regolith growth experiments were underwhelming last year.)
Hydroponics bypass the need for soil. Rather than hoping plants will establish roots in regolith or other substrates, hydroponics allows those roots to grow directly into nutrient-rich water. In order to ensure the water used for lunar hydroponics is nutritious, however, Solsys and the ESA will have to create a system that extracts nutrients from regolith.
[...] "This work is essential for future long-term lunar exploration," said ESA materials and processes engineer Malgorzata Holynska. "Achieving a sustainable presence on the Moon will involve using local resources and gaining access to nutrients present in lunar regolith with the potential to help cultivate plants."
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday February 27, @02:41PM (1 child)
It seems somewhat vague on the the how or what they are trying to do that have not already been tried to do with regolith or the various mixes and substitutes. Weird that they have not come up with something better then JSC-1A which they came up with about 30 years ago. But considering they mention that it lacks nitrogen compounds and they are going to be trying to use beneficiated regolith I can only assume they are going to grind the regolith down to a very fine powder and mix it with human excrement and urine (or what gets left after recycling the water). So they are going to try and make poop-bricks and grow things in them?
But when is it more of less beneficial to use this growing compared to hydroponics? I guess water and fluids will be at a premium and a lot of it is wasted in hydroponics? Or?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27, @07:59PM
As well as poop-bricks, do you know if anyone has tried mixing regolith with compost (from vegetable waste)? If they go with hydroponics to start with, there will still be inedible parts of the plants that could be composted.
(Score: 1) by nostyle on Monday February 27, @03:25PM (2 children)
12-Month Study on Lunar Hunting and Gathering
--
"Arms that can only lift a spoon" -Jonathan King, Everyone’s Gone to the Moon
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 27, @06:56PM (1 child)
Farming and hunter gathering on Mars is much more important than doing sew on the moon. The supply chain to the moon is much shorter than to Mars. Emergency evacuation from the moon is more practical than from Mars -- despite the difficulty of lunar evacuation.
I asked Open AI Image for Futuristic Land Line Desk Telephone on the Moon. I got a white desk telephone [open.ai] on the outdoor surface of the moon. It had a coil cord handset. A large LCD display on the phone with some buttons, like an office phone. And . . . a rotary dial!
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 27, @08:58PM
Barsoomian thoat is tasty. Green cheese not so much.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DadaDoofy on Monday February 27, @05:40PM (3 children)
I'm not sure why this is the least bit necessary. If the moon is ever colonized, it will be by robots. By comparison, setting up an infrastructure there for humans would be cost prohibitive. In a decade or two, robots will build, mine and otherwise exploit the moon's resources autonomously.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 27, @06:58PM
Humans will be on the moon.
Maybe for rich people.
But we might turn the moon into an escape proof prison facility. It's not like humans wouldn't do this with an island sized continent or anything like that.
OTOH, the moon is a harsh mistress.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 27, @08:30PM
We are a long, long, very long way from self replicating and/or self repairing robots and nanobots. There will be people on the moon as soon as there are robots on the moon. Ditto Mars. When NASA has dozens of broke down rovers sitting around up there, they'll send a tech to repair everything possible to repair. His Mars buggy will be well stocked with new solar panels, batteries, camera lenses, maybe upgraded CPUs, memory, new wheels, etc ad nauseum.
Just think - two or three years duty as a rover repairman on Mars will make a guy quite wealthy. Not filthy rich, of course, that kind of money is reserved for corporate board members and investors. But quite wealthy, by normal people's standards.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 27, @09:02PM
Without humans, the Moon wouldn't be colonized. Words mean things. And really how much does it cost to throw up a few hundred kilograms of starter infrastructure per human? It's not that expensive.
Maybe. Robotics has progressed slower than expected. I recall people claiming we would have hit the Singularity in 2020, and well, if it happened, then we haven't been told about it yet (sounds like a premise for a good story though).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27, @06:33PM (1 child)
We're supposed to use machines and robots to "colonize" the moon, no human life support needed, except for the prisoners
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27, @08:06PM
Sounds like you answered your own conundrum.