Can plants grow on Mars and the moon: a growth experiment on Mars and moon soil simulants.

G W Wieger Wamelink,M Rinie Verwoert,Paul W Goedhart,Joep Y Frissel,Wilfred H J Krijnen,Alberto De La Fuente

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0103138

Abstract

When humans will settle on the moon or Mars they will have to eat there. Food may be flown in. An alternative could be to cultivate plants at the site itself, preferably in native soils. We report on the first large-scale controlled experiment to investigate the possibility of growing plants in Mars and moon soil simulants. The results show that plants are able to germinate and grow on both Martian and moon soil simulant for a period of 50 days without any addition of nutrients. Growth and flowering on Mars regolith simulant was much better than on moon regolith simulant and even slightly better than on our control nutrient poor river soil. Reflexed stonecrop (a wild plant); the crops tomato, wheat, and cress; and the green manure species field mustard performed particularly well. The latter three flowered, and cress and field mustard also produced seeds. Our results show that in principle it is possible to grow crops and other plant species in Martian and Lunar soil simulants. However, many questions remain about the simulants' water carrying capacity and other physical characteristics and also whether the simulants are representative of the real soils.

Highlights

Lunar and Mars explorations have provided information about the mineral composition of the soils of these solar objects
The major source of reactive nitrogen on Earth is the mineralisation of organic matter [1], which is absent on both Mars and moon
Except for Common vetch all other plants germinated in some proportion on all three tested soils; the Mars soil simulant, the moon soil simulant and the River Rhine soil

Summary

Introduction

Lunar and Mars explorations have provided information about the mineral composition of the soils of these solar objects. All essential minerals for the growth of plants appear to be present in sufficient quantities in both soils probably with the exception of reactive nitrogen. The major source of reactive nitrogen on Earth is the mineralisation of organic matter [1]. Reactive nitrogen may arise as an effect of lightning or volcanic activity [8,9] and both processes may occur on Mars. This indicates that in principle reactive nitrogen could be present [7,10]. The major source of reactive nitrogen on Earth is the mineralisation of organic matter [1], which is absent on both Mars and moon. Local soils could be used to grow crops, at least partly

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