Scientists Successfully Grow Plants In Moon Soil For The First Time

凱倫

Forthefirsttime，scientistshavegrownplants in soil from the moon collected by Nasa'sApollo astronauts.

Researchers had no idea if anything wouldsprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see

if it could be used to grow food by a new generationoflunarexplorers. Theresultsstunnedthem.

“Holy cow. Plants actually grow in lunarstuff. Are you kidding me？”said Robert Ferl of

theUniversityof Florida'sInstituteof Foodand Agricultural Sciences.

Ferl and his colleagues planted thale cressin moon soil returned by Apollo 11's Neil Arm-

strong and Buzz Aldrin， and other moonwalkers years ago and the seeds sprouted.

Thedownsidewasthatafterthefirstweek， the coarseness and other properties of thelunarsoilstressed thesmall，flowering weedsso much that they grew more slowly than seedlings planted in fake moon dirt from Earth.

Most of the moon plants ended up stunted.Results were published on May in CommunicationsBiology.

科學家首次在美國宇航局阿波羅號宇航員從月球上收集的土壤里種出了植物。

研究人員原本不知道貧瘠的月球土壤里能否長出東西，想看看新一代月球探險者能否用月球土壤種植食物。實驗結果讓他們驚呆了。

美國佛羅里達大學食品和農業(yè)科學研究所的羅伯特·菲爾說：“我的天！月球土壤里真的能種出植物！這不是在開玩笑吧？”

菲爾和他的同事在阿波羅11號宇航員尼爾·阿姆斯特朗、巴茲·奧爾德林和其他登月者數年前帶回的月球土壤中種植鼠耳芥，結果種子發(fā)芽了。

壞消息是，過了一周后，月球土壤的粗糙和其他特性給初生的鼠耳芥幼苗造成了很大壓力，所以月球土壤中種植的鼠耳芥幼苗比來自地球的仿月球土壤中種植的鼠耳芥幼苗生長速度更緩慢。

種植在月球土壤中的大多數鼠耳芥植株最后都會發(fā)育不良。該結果于5月12日發(fā)表在《通訊·生物》上。

The longer the soil was exposed to punishingcosmicradiationandsolarwindonthemoon， the worse the plants seemed to do.

The Apollo 11 samples — exposed a couple of billion years longer to the elements becauseof thelunarSeaof Tranquility'soldersurface — were the least conducive for growth，according to scientists.

“This is a bigstep forward to know thatyoucangrowplants，”saidSimonGilroy，aspace plant biologist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison， who had no role in the study.“The real next step is to go and do it on the surface of the moon.”

Moon dirt is full of tiny， glass fragmentsfrommicrometeoriteimpactsthatgoteverywhereintheApollolunarlandersandworedown the moonwalkers'spacesuits.

One solution might be to use younger geologicspotsonthemoon，likelavaflows，fordigging up planting soil. The environment alsocould be tweaked， altering the nutrient mixtureor adjusting the artificial lighting.

Only 842 pounds of moon rocks and soilwerebroughtbackbysix Apollocrews，andmost was locked away.

Nasa finally doled out 12 grams to the Universityof Floridaresearchersearlylastyear，and thelong- awaited planting took placelast38 May in a lab.

月球上的土壤暴露在嚴酷的宇宙輻射和太陽風下的時間越長，植物的長勢似乎就越差。

科學家稱，阿波羅11號帶回的土壤樣本是最不利于植物生長的，因為月球表面古老的靜海區(qū)域比其他區(qū)域多承受了幾十億年的宇宙輻射和太陽風。

沒有參與該研究的威斯康星大學麥迪遜分校太空植物學家西蒙·吉爾羅伊說：“知道能在月球土壤中種植物是向前邁了一大步。下一步就是在月球表面上種植物?！?/p>

月球土壤中充斥著微隕石沖擊留下的小玻璃碎片，阿波羅登月飛行器上到處都是微隕石撞擊的痕跡，微隕石給登月者的宇航服也造成了很多磨損。

改善植物生長情況的一個解決方法可能是選取月球上地質比較年輕的區(qū)域的土壤，比如在有熔巖流的區(qū)域挖取種植土壤。種植環(huán)境也可以稍作改變，更換營養(yǎng)混合液或調整人造光。

阿波羅號的6名宇航員一共只帶回了842磅（382千克）的月球巖石和土壤，大多數都被封存了。

去年初，美國宇航局終于分給佛羅里達大學研究人員12克月球土壤，這一期待已久的種植實驗去年5月得以在實驗室開展。