If we want to create a permanent presence in space, on the Moon or Mars, we need to learn how to use the resources we find there. Space people call it “in-situ resource utilisation”; on Earth, it would just be “living off the land”. It’s just not practical or sustainable to completely supply those missions from Earth.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced a new Discovery project investigating the treatment of lunar soil to create fertiliser for growing plants, led by Norway’s Solsys Mining.
Analysis of the samples of lunar soil (regolith) that we have – collected by Apollo astronauts or robot missions – shows that they contain the essential minerals needed for plant growth, except nitrogen compounds.
Unfortunately, we also know that regolith compacts when you add water, making it difficult for seeds to germinate and for plants to grow roots. Growing plants hydroponically – in water rather than soil – is one possible solution to the issue. And there might be another way to use lunar regolith to grow plants.
Solsys Mining is leading a project called “Enabling Lunar In-Situ Agriculture by Producing Fertiliser from Beneficiated Regolith”.
They’re working with Norway’s Geotechnical Institute (NGI) and Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Space (CIRiS), studying a combination of mechanical, chemical and biological processes to extract mineral nutrients from the regolith. We might need to remove undesirable elements and concentrate the valuable ones.
Solsys Mining has produced an artist’s impression of what this might look like. To the left, there’s a mechanical sorting area for the regolith, which passes through to the central module for more advanced processing, such as chemical leaching.
On the right-hand side, the
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