The seedlings sprouted in the regolith scooped up in the 1960s and ’70s, but astronauts won’t be harvesting lunar spuds anytime soon.
Paul and her team made the most of their limited supply of authentic regolith. For each sample, they had about a gram, or a small spoonful, of material collected from—the first human landing on the moon, at the Sea of Tranquility—and the Apollo 12 and 17 missions, which landed west and north of there. For comparison, they also planted seeds in similar amounts of simulated lunar soil made from volcanic ash, which on Earth would be a poor choice for gardening.
Compared to their counterparts that grew in volcanic ash, all the plants in the moon soil took longer to develop broad leaves, were smaller, and some were severely stunted. Of the plants potted in regolith, the ones grown in the samples from the Apollo 12 and 17 missions fared the best.
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