Experts grow plants in lunar dirt, next is moon
Sat eyes pinpoint waste
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 15, (AP): For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.
Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by the next generation of lunar explorers. The results stunned them.
“Holy cow. Plants actually grow in lunar stuff. Are you kidding me?” said Robert Ferl of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Ferl and his colleagues planted thale cress in moon soil returned by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and other moonwalkers. The good news: All of the seeds sprouted. The downside was that after the first week, the coarseness and other properties of the lunar soil stressed the small, flowering weeds so 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 Thursday in Communications Biology.
The longer the soil was exposed to punishing cosmic radiation and solar wind on the moon, the worse the plants seemed to do. The Apollo 11 samples — exposed a couple billion years longer to the elements because of the Sea of Tranquility’s older surface — were the least conducive for growth, according to scientists.
“This is a big step forward to know that you can grow plants,” said Simon Gilroy, a space 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 fragments from micrometeorite impacts that got everywhere in the Apollo lunar landers and wore down the moonwalkers’ spacesuits.
One solution might be to use younger geologic spots on the moon, like lava flows, for digging up planting soil. The environment also could be tweaked, altering the nutrient mixture or adjusting the artificial lighting,
Experiment
Only 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of moon rocks and soil were brought back by six Apollo crews. Some of the earliest moon dust was sprinkled on plants under quarantine with the Apollo astronauts in Houston after returning from the moon.
Most of the lunar stash remained locked away, forcing researchers to experiment with simulated soil made of volcanic ash on Earth. NASA finally doled out 12 grams to the University of Florida researchers early last year, and the long-awaited planting took place last May in a lab.
NASA said the timing for such an experiment was finally right, with the space agency looking to put astronauts back on the moon in a few years.
The ideal situation would be for future astronauts to tap into the endless supply of available local dirt for indoor planting versus setting up a hydroponic, or all-water, system, scientists said.
“The fact that anything grew means that we have a really good starting point, and now the question is how do we optimize and improve,” said Sharmila Bhattacharya, NASA’s program scientist for space biology,
The Florida scientists hope to recycle their lunar soil later this year, planting more thale cress before possibly moving on to other vegetation.
A cutting-edge new tool developed by Minderoo Foundation has identified thousands of waste sites across 25 countries for the first time using advanced satellite data technology and machine learning to measure piles of plastic waste from space.
Global Plastic Watch (globalplasticwatch.org) is a tool which combines earth observation with artificial intelligence to create the first-ever near-real-time high-resolution map of plastic pollution. This is the largest open-source dataset of plastic waste across dozens of countries. The aim of the tool is to help authorities to better manage plastic leakage into the marine environment.
Global Plastic Watch uses remote sensing satellite imagery from the European Space Agency and a first-of-its-kind machine learned model created in collaboration with award winning Digital Product Agency for the Environment, Earthrise Media. The tool is able to determine the size and scale of land-based plastic waste sites, a major factor in fueling the growing problem of plastic pollution of the world’s rivers and oceans.
The data gathered provides a historical first and authoritative insight into one of the world’s most intractable environmental challenges — a deluge of plastic pollution which is threatening the oceans, harming communities, marine life, animal and human health. By using it, governments, industry and communities can evaluate and monitor the risk of landbased plastic waste sites, as well as prioritise investments in solutions.
The countries mapped so far include all of South-East Asia, Australia, and the countries identified by research published in Science Advances as accounting for high rates of plastic emissions into the ocean.
Transparency
Dr Andrew Forrest AO, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Minderoo Foundation described data and transparency as important tools to fight plastic waste, and until now, it has been difficult to effectively identify and measure plastic waste build-up in a systematic, standardised way.
“Generally, the world has no idea how dangerous plastic waste is to the organic environment, particularly humans. The destination for every piece of plastic is nano-plastic, which has both poisonous and cutting attributes able to mutilate cells and even penetrate the human blood brain barrier,” Dr Forrest said.
“Preventing illegal and legal plastic waste stockpiles entering the oceanic environment is critical to limit this harm. Once in the ocean, through both mixing, absorption and ingestion by animals, this plastic will officially enter the human environment.
Using artificial Intelligence and satellite data, Minderoo Foundation has produced the first-ever map of plastic waste build up. Most of our data about plastic waste comes from models and estimates. Now our understanding is informed by real data that can be used to guide solutions.
Global Plastic Watch arms governments and researchers around the world with data that can better guide effective waste management interventions, ensuring land-based waste doesn’t end up in our oceans,” Dr Forrest said. “We want to work with governments to ensure this tool can also help to support policy change where needed.”
Dr Fabien Laurier, Lead for Technology and Innovation, and Ocean Conservation at Minderoo Foundation said some of the Global Plastic Watch findings were surprising.
“We know that land-based leakage contributes up to 91 per cent of the plastic waste that enters the ocean,” Dr Laurier said. “Global Plastic Watch has revealed that many large-scale waste sites across the first 25 countries we have mapped were previously undocumented and the number of sites is much higher than expected.”
The government of Indonesia is working with Minderoo Foundation to increase its recycling capacity to double recycling rates by developing capacity for an additional one million tonnes per year by 2025.
Dr Nani Hendiarti, Deputy for Environment and Forestry Management Coordination, Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Indonesia, congratulated Minderoo Foundation on the public launch of the Global Plastic Watch.