Growing plants in lunar soil.

Not to long ago we had a thread in which we discussed growing food on Mars and about fertilizing the garden with among
other things human waste.

Biologists from the European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec) have shown that you can grow plants in lunar
regolith in which you add some bacteria, without fertilizers. [See the following site, sorry for the French, I don't
have it in English]
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles...e-plante.shtml

The plants they have grown, though some parts are edible, can't really be considered as a food crop. Nonetheless, those
plants can be used to make compost, which would then allow to grow more reasonable crops. I see no reasons why something
similar couldn't be done on Mars.


Alain Fournier

It seems now we have the one and only likes of our William Mook (aka
willie.moo and company of DARPA spooks and moles) telling us we should
give up on Earth, and at the very least move our commercial
agriculture into LEO for accomplishing most of our future food
production. It’s almost as though our wise Mook knows something
that’s worse off than WWIII or AGW, that’s just around the corner
(perhaps as soon as 2029, in the form of an asteroid).

Of course those trusty LEO wizards of DARPA will gladly R&D and
somehow deploy as well as sustain all of this infrastructure in LEO
for next to nothing, along with those rad-hard workers from India
still willing to earn their $1/day plus R&B, that which along with
their to/from transporting and banked stem cell plus bone marrow and
subsequent transplants should only cost us a few tens of millions per
worker per year. (such a deal)

Why this should all work according to plan; It’ll work because along
with those Mook atomic/nuclear rockets it’s so much more profitable,
so much better for our environment, and of that rad-hard food derived
from LEO space will even become so much cheaper for the populations of
Earth, including those that are currently stuck with earning $1/day,
because those folks will soon enough under the wise rule of Mook
become wealthy enough to afford any price for terrestrial energy,
food, housing, education and medical care, regardless of how many
world class wars and AGW events are festering on Earth.

Now for starters, the bipolar/multipolar aspects of lord Mook should
be ignored, all because he is so good at telling us stories, of how
the rich and powerful (mostly of his close DRAPA friends) are
genetically smarter than all of us combined, as well as having been
entirely responsible for all the good on Earth. Of whatever’s bad and
ugly is simply a direct result of those crazy Muslim or similar faith-
based groups that don’t happen go along with the Old Testament as
Zionist interpreted.

Seems like a perfectly good global domination plan of action, doesn’t
it.
. – Brad Guth


Alain Fournier wrote:
Not to long ago we had a thread in which we discussed growing food on Mars and about fertilizing the garden with among
other things human waste.

Biologists from the European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec) have shown that you can grow plants in lunar
regolith in which you add some bacteria, without fertilizers. [See the following site, sorry for the French, I don't
have it in English]
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles...e-plante.shtml

The plants they have grown, though some parts are edible, can't really be considered as a food crop. Nonetheless, those
plants can be used to make compost, which would then allow to grow more reasonable crops. I see no reasons why something
similar couldn't be done on Mars.

Alain Fournier

I've intentionally top-posted for the benefit of others.

On a generous scale of 0-10, I gave this Mook rant of “food from
space” a 0.5, because we'll all be long dead and gone by several
generations worth, especially by the time the first of any pilot
version gets placed and sustained in LEO.

Too bad Mook and of his DARPA company isn't allowed to utilize the
moon's L1, much less that of my LSE-CM/ISS.
. - BG

Odd this nifty topic still isn't picking up any head of steam.

On Apr 25, 10:09 pm, BradGuth wrote:
It seems now we have the one and only likes of our William Mook (aka
willie.moo and company of DARPA spooks and moles) telling us we should
give up on Earth, and at the very least move our commercial
agriculture into LEO for accomplishing most of our future food
production. It’s almost as though our wise Mook knows something
that’s worse off than WWIII or AGW, that’s just around the corner
(perhaps as soon as 2029, in the form of an asteroid).

Of course those trusty LEO wizards of DARPA will gladly R&D and
somehow deploy as well as sustain all of this infrastructure in LEO
for next to nothing, along with those rad-hard workers from India
still willing to earn their $1/day plus R&B, that which along with
their to/from transporting and banked stem cell plus bone marrow and
subsequent transplants should only cost us a few tens of millions per
worker per year. (such a deal)

Why this should all work according to plan; It’ll work because along
with those Mook atomic/nuclear rockets it’s so much more profitable,
so much better for our environment, and of that rad-hard food derived
from LEO space will even become so much cheaper for the populations of
Earth, including those that are currently stuck with earning $1/day,
because those folks will soon enough under the wise rule of Mook
become wealthy enough to afford any price for terrestrial energy,
food, housing, education and medical care, regardless of how many
world class wars and AGW events are festering on Earth.

Now for starters, the bipolar/multipolar aspects of lord Mook should
be ignored, all because he is so good at telling us stories, of how
the rich and powerful (mostly of his close DRAPA friends) are
genetically smarter than all of us combined, as well as having been
entirely responsible for all the good on Earth. Of whatever’s bad and
ugly is simply a direct result of those crazy Muslim or similar faith-
based groups that don’t happen go along with the Old Testament as
Zionist interpreted.

Seems like a perfectly good global domination plan of action, doesn’t
it.
. – Brad Guth

Alain Fournier wrote:
Not to long ago we had a thread in which we discussed growing food on Mars and about fertilizing the garden with among
other things human waste.

Biologists from the European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec) have shown that you can grow plants in lunar
regolith in which you add some bacteria, without fertilizers. [See the following site, sorry for the French, I don't
have it in English]
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles.../04/17/001-lun...

The plants they have grown, though some parts are edible, can't really be considered as a food crop. Nonetheless, those
plants can be used to make compost, which would then allow to grow more reasonable crops. I see no reasons why something
similar couldn't be done on Mars.

Alain Fournier

I've intentionally top-posted for the benefit of others.

On a generous scale of 0-10, I gave this Mook rant of “food from
space” a 0.5, because we'll all be long dead and gone by several
generations worth, especially by the time the first of any pilot
version gets placed and sustained in LEO.

Too bad Mook and of his DARPA company isn't allowed to utilize the
moon's L1, much less that of my LSE-CM/ISS.
. - BG

I've top-posted for the ongoing benefit of others.
. - BG

This should to be good. Public loot paying for the goal of getting
rad-hard plants growing on the surface of our moon, even if covered by
an inflated dome of O2 plus whatever else makes a rad-hard plant
happy, seems unlikely and otherwise damn spendy.
.. - Brad Guth

Alain Fournier wrote:
Not to long ago we had a thread in which we discussed growing food on Mars and about fertilizing the garden with among
other things human waste.

Biologists from the European Space Research and Technology Centre (Estec) have shown that you can grow plants in lunar
regolith in which you add some bacteria, without fertilizers. [See the following site, sorry for the French, I don't
have it in English]
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles...e-plante.shtml

The plants they have grown, though some parts are edible, can't really be considered as a food crop. Nonetheless, those
plants can be used to make compost, which would then allow to grow more reasonable crops. I see no reasons why something
similar couldn't be done on Mars.


Alain Fournier

[Followup set to sci.space.moderated]

BradGuth wrote:

This should to be good. Public loot paying for the goal of getting
rad-hard plants growing on the surface of our moon, even if covered by
an inflated dome of O2 plus whatever else makes a rad-hard plant
happy, seems unlikely and otherwise damn spendy.
. - Brad Guth

Doing the experiment on Earth isn't very expensive. Doing it on
the Moon is expensive, but if you already are on the moon, it is
less expensive than carrying your food from Earth.


Alain Fournier