If humankind is ever to establish long-term bases on the moon, there will be a need for a regular source of food. It is not practical, however, to think you can plant corn or wheat in plain lunar soil in greenhouses on the moon and expect a bumper crop - or any crop at all.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Researchers said on Thursday they have found a way to turn inhospitable lunar soil fertile by introducing bacteria that enhance the availability of phosphorus, an important plant nutrient.
They performed experiments growing a relative of tobacco using simulated moon soil, more properly called lunar regolith, in a laboratory in China.
In a study published last year, researchers in the United States grew a flowering weed called Arabidopsis thaliana in 12 thimble-sized containers, each bearing a gram of actual moon soil collected during NASA missions more than a half century ago.
The researchers used volcanic material from the Changbai mountains of China’s Jilin Province to create soil with similar chemical and physical properties to lunar regolith.
A plant cultivation system on the moon could help meet long-term food and oxygen requirements for human crews, Xia added.
“In contrast, our technique, which is a kind of in-situ resource utilization, applies microbial improvement to the lunar soil, making it more fertile and capable for plant cultivation,” Xia added.
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