this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Hydroponics requires biologically available nitrogen too and it has to come from somewhere. The point of these experiments is to explore a wide variety of scenarios. Hydroponics as a growing method has some drawbacks too. Any robust food production scheme in space will likely include a mix of hydro- and geo-ponics (fancy name for soil growing).
Also consider the non-food benefits of living plants and soil. Any long term habitat on the moon or Mars will need living plants for the psychological and air quality benefits. There is a massive body of research that shows the benefits of having trees around. There is even research that shows just smelling healthy soil can be antidepressant.
Letβs say we enclose a large lava tube, one seriously considered approach for long term habitats. Having some greenery would go a long way to staving off Space Madness.
Makes sense that if you can plant plants in a plantable media, over time you may develop that media into something akin to soil, which means you have a more stable grounding for future generations of plants.
(I honestly tried for some alliteration or punnage, this was the best I could do, forgive me π).
Yes, I'd think that would be the goal. Long term habitation will need plants of many kinds. Just start listing all the ways people benefit from plants and you'll see the list just goes on and on. At the huge price per kilogram of launched mass, making soil out of local materials and developing closed-loop systems just makes economic sense. Soil is a living thing after all, it doesn't wear out or go away. (Older than dirt!) Learning how to make healthy functioning soil from native regolith is an important part of the whole in-situ resource utilization push from the major space agencies.
Exactly.
We already do a lot of research on earth to maintain and improve soils, such basic things as turning under a winter crop which is used as a fixative, making that soil healthier.
Seems like it could work with regolith (as in these tests) - turn each plant generation back into the regolith, composting it, eventually it becomes soil with everything being retained.
It'll be really interesting to see the plant growth and soil improvements over the generations of composting (which I assume is part of this testing).
"Older than dirt" lol, yep!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event
So I think Azolla (a floating fern that fixes nitrogen) is the way to go to jumpstart an extraterrestrial soil. Itβs insanely productive and makes amazing compost. The wikipedia link is just a cool thing I like to share.
MADNESS IN SPAAAACCCEEE
It's like regular madness, but in spaaaaaaaaaaace, therefore very expensive.
Well you have to make sure the madness is hardened against cosmic rays.