Scientists grow chickpeas in moon soil to prep for bases
Scientists just pulled off something pretty cool—they managed to grow chickpeas in soil that mimics what you'd find on the moon.
Led by Sara Santos at the University of Texas, the team wanted to see if plants could survive in lunar regolith, which is basically moon dirt with no organic matter or microorganisms but that does contain some vital nutrients and also some toxic metals.
This experiment is a big step toward making future moon bases more self-sufficient.
What the researchers did
To help the chickpeas thrive, researchers mixed in vermicompost (think supercharged compost); some samples also received helpful fungi called AMF, while others received only AMF.
Flowering and seed production occurred only in samples with both vermicompost and AMF and with regolith content <=75%.
The best results came when 25-50% of the mix was vermicompost—plants grew well, and seed weight matched what we see on Earth.
Next up: checking if these space-grown chickpeas are actually good to eat!