Legume crops reached seed production in simulated lunar regolith when amended with compost and symbiotic fungi
Laboratory tests show a staple legume can germinate, grow, flower and produce viable seed in simulated moon soil when compost-like organic matter and beneficial fungal partners are added, but experiments used terrestrial simulants and Earth conditions.
Researchers tested crop growth in simulated lunar regolith in laboratory experiments to assess whether local lunar materials could support agriculture. A staple legume germinated, grew, flowered and produced viable, harvestable seeds when the simulated regolith was amended with a compost-like organic material and when plant roots were partnered with beneficial symbiotic fungi.
The compost-like amendment provided missing organic carbon and improved water retention in the simulated substrate. Symbiotic fungi enhanced nutrient uptake and increased the plants’ tolerance to stress under the experimental conditions. Together these biological inputs enabled the plants to reach reproductive maturity in the regolith simulant.
The study indicates that combining local mineral substrates with biological partners—microbes and organic amendments—can compensate for the chemical and physical deficiencies of regolith. This approach could reduce the mass of agricultural supplies that must be launched from Earth by relying on in-situ materials augmented with biological aids.
Important limitations remain. The experiments were performed on Earth using terrestrial simulants rather than actual lunar regolith, and they were conducted under Earth gravity with ambient radiation shielding. The tests did not fully evaluate closed-loop life-support constraints such as water recycling, nutrient cycling, and long-term soil management required for sustained crop production in space.
The authors recommend further experiments that expose plants and amended regolith to realistic lunar environmental stressors—low gravity, higher radiation levels, and strict resource recycling—to determine whether astronauts could reliably produce food locally on the Moon or other airless bodies.