Lab Notes: What can we grow on the Moon?

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It's happened.

Astronauts have taken a trip around the moon for the first time in 50 years.

They're not landing, but one day they will again and one day they'll stay.

So what will they eat?

Do they have to take a lot of packed lunches or can we farm food in space?

This is Lab Notes from ABC Radio National.

I'm Jonathan Webb, and today I'm joined by Professor Matthew Gilliam, who directs

the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space at Adelaide University.

So why do we want to grow plants on the moon, Matthew?

It's exciting that we're finally at a point that we do have some concrete plans to send

astronauts back there, but I feel like it's going to be a long time before we need fields

of wheat and potatoes, am I right?

Absolutely, and that's why we're working on this now.

So humans have the ambition to have a permanent presence on the moon and use that as a basis

for going further in the solar system than ever before to Mars and perhaps very much

in the future one day beyond.

And human history tells us that having the ability to produce and whilst we're at a remote

location is the best scenario.

Resupply from Earth will be not something that's viable.

What are the main challenges to getting anything to grow on, say, the surface of the moon?

I've not been, but it doesn't look very hospitable.

Yeah, well, neither have I, but what we have learned from Apollo missions over 50 years

ago now is that it's a very inhospitable place.

Not only does it have no atmosphere, it also has a tenth of the Earth's gravity.

And so there are no nutrients in the regolith, the dust, basically, shards of glass.

So we're not able to grow plants in that regolith and we need to create atmosphere, so indoor

farming.

The kind of thing that we're looking at is akin to what might be vertical farming or indoor

protected cropping that we have here on Earth.

Okay, so you're looking at something like a hydroponic system.

I mean, shards of glass does sound pretty, pretty difficult to actually get anything to

take root in.

What would the substrate be?

What's the dirt in your plant-a-boxes for the moon?

So there is no dirt in those initial missions.

It's essentially a hydroponic setup.

And even though there's only a tenth of the Earth's gravity, that's enough for water

to behave.

But it's still a case of growing the right plant in these kinds of systems and they have

to have particular properties for them to really grow well in these environments.

And where does the water come from then?

Well, that is the big question and that's why the Artemis missions are planning to land

on the South Pole, where there is predicted to be quite sufficient reserves of water.

So I think in years to come, it will come from the moon.

In early, very early missions, it will probably be transported there.

What crop would you choose, or are you planning to choose for your first experiment?

And what do you think might actually lead to success eventually?

The plants that we're working on in our center are those that have properties that we

know will be very important going forward for these lunar missions.

And that's fast growth, compact architecture, really the ability to have zero waste.

And so we are working with things like strawberries, which also have a sensory appeal.

So we know that there is a large psychological driver for having fresh food as well as a

nutritional driver over the pre-packaged meals that astronauts traditionally eat.

The one that we are particularly excited about that we hope one day that the public will

also be on board is other lemno and warfare plants and these are aquatic plants that are

the fastest growing flowering plant on the planet.

They are related to many of the crop plants we eat, they're not algae.

Unfortunately, they have a common name called duckweed.

So it doesn't sound as appetizing as a strawberry.

Exactly.

But it has wonderful properties.

It has the same amount of protein in the leaf as soybean, so 40% dry weight protein.

But it doubles in size every two days.

So we can supply over about 18 meter squared as enough protein for a single human constantly,

24-7.

So all those nutrients in terms of the protein aspect.

However, do people want to eat a constant diet of green?

People take shots of wheat grass and things like that.

But this is a lot of green smoothies, if that's what you're going to eat.

Exactly.

So what we're doing is not only thinking about the plants, but also how can we turn these

base materials into interesting textures?

So into yogurts, cheeses, plant-based meats, and we all know about the quality of some

of these that has room for improvement in these products on earth.

The stats really for duckweed, really do stack up that rapid growth rate, the high nutritional

value, are things that we're looking at and modifying our traditional plants here

on earth so they can grow in these controlled environments on the lunar surface.

What are the risks met you?

Are there any reasons not to be wanting to contaminate the surface of the moon with

life from earth?

That's a really good question.

And I think that comes down to what we're also studying in the centre, which is the ethics

of all of this.

So we all look up to the night sky, we see the moon.

It is not virgin territory anymore.

We do have human waste there already in terms of lunar landings and the footprint that

comes from that.

However, it is sacred to people in certain cultures and it's something that we have to think

deeply about.

That's what I love about the nature of space and how we go forward here because it could

be, we could do things differently.

What's the most significant benefit we might get for agriculture here at home?

Do you think from all of this effort that's going towards potential moon food?

Yeah, but that comes down to the heart of it.

We wouldn't be doing this if it was just to support what is a fantastic and inspirational

thing.

And I think a lot of us get inspiration from our exploration endeavors.

What is what we will be getting from what we're doing is the ability to produce 24, 7 anywhere

on earth for everyone in any kind of conditions in South Australia where I'm based.

We have predictions it's going to be hotter and drier into the future.

In other areas, there are constant seasonal floods going on so this changing and shifting

weather patterns is really problematic for growth of our food and so having a way to have

a constant secure climate resilient production of key ingredients is going to be important.

What we can also do is to produce items that are not traditional food crops, so high

value pharmaceuticals, plastics, biofuels, flavours, nutraceuticals in these kinds of environments

too.

It also sounds incredibly difficult, Matthew, is that challenge part of what's appealing,

this inhospitable environment, the incredible, you know, the preciousness of any weight

that you send up, these many parameters that make it hard.

Is that part of what makes it exciting?

I think you've hit the nail on the head there in terms of, you know, I say often to people

in the lab that, you know, we wouldn't be doing these things if they were easy and we

knew the answers, the extra constraint of doing it remote is an extreme challenge and

one that requires us to do this, this work now before we have that presence on the moon

in any considerable length of time.

You wouldn't be doing it if it was easy, it definitely doesn't sound easy, but it does

sound like you're doing it.

Matthew Gilliam, thank you so much for sharing your lab notes with me.

Thanks, Jonathan.

Professor Matthew Gilliam is the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants

for Space at Adelaide University, and to stay in touch with what's happening between

here and the moon with Artemis II, make sure you're following the science friction podcast

where we have a special season rolling out with all the latest mission updates.

It's called Artemis Explained.

This episode of lab notes was produced on Gadigal and Manang, noongar country.

Fiona Pepper is the producer, I'm Jonathan Webb, and I'll catch you next week.

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