#moondust

#moondust

Plants Can Grow in Lunar Soil (on Earth)Scientists from the University of Florida have managed to grow plants of the speciesArabidopsis thaliana, or the hardy thale cress, in lunar regolith, which we know as moon dust. Now wait a minute, where did they get moon dust? From the moon, silly. This regolith was brought back by the Apollo missions 50 years ago, and it is still powering experiments here on earth. The plants are not as robust as those grown in earth soil, nor in volcanic ash, but they are growing. This research is aimed at how we can harness the moon's own resources to grow food for possible lunar visitors or even settlers. These plants were grown using seeds, regolith, water, nutrients, and artificial light, only one of which is available on the moon. But it's a step in the right direction. My question is: has the regolith undergone any changes in the 50 years since it was brought to earth? Read more about this experiment at NASA. (Image credit: UF/IFAS photo by Tyler Jones)#lunarsoil #regolith #NASA #plant #moondust

The First-Ever Moon Dust Collected by the Apollo Mission to be AuctionedOn May 25, 1961, President Kennedy delivered a speech to Congress about landing men on the Moon. It was a speech that made thousands of people, scientists, technicians, workers, engineers, and administrators, work together. Over eight years later, on July 20, 1969, what was once a dream became a reality when the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon's surface. A few hours after the landing, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin came out of the spacecraft and stepped onto the dusty lunar surface.The Apollo 11 mission, however, not only aimed to bring men to the Moon but also to collect lunar dust for study. The collection of lunar material was assigned to Armstrong, who put about a kilogram of lunar dust on a Teflon bag.Unfortunately, NASA lost this Teflon bag some years later, and it would land in the personal collection of a former curator of the Cosmosphere museum in Kansas. While NASA did prove that the Teflon bag was from the Apollo 11 mission, the agency was ordered to return five of the six scanning electron microscope (SEM) sample stubs that contained the Apollo lunar dust from the bag. This decision made said lunar dust the only verified samples to be legally sold.(Images: Bonham)#NASA #NeilArmstrong #BuzzAldrin #Space #Moon #MoonDust #Apollo11