Lunar Farming

[sftommy]

As a farm boy, very far removed, I’ve always fancied using a moon crater for farming.

Current or near-current technology suggests we could reinforce the crater walls with an air-tight regolith concrete and lay a Bigelow type skin over the top, little bit of solar collecting and a few Lupines to start the oxygen nitrogen processes. I’d envisioned a glass ceiling, but a frozen water ceiling might hold back radiation and let in sunlight.

Guess I’m asking the readership what are some of the problematic challenges they see and what would be some of the solutions?

 

[Gravity_Ray]

Lunar regolith is totally useless as soil for farming. It lacks everything plants need. The regolith is useful for mining certain things a human outpost/base will need, but growing things in it will not work.

Soil is going to be an issue for an early lunar base. Nitrogen will probably have to be imported from NEO's or some place else as hauling things that will make soil from Earth will give you costs that will blow your mind away.

In my Lunar base post I suggest growing things at first will have to be done hydroponically. Once we start getting some organics from humans and these first plants some soil can be made at the lunar base. Then some kind of growth cycle can start to make more soil and eventually lead to some small lunar farms.

Although I love grand ideas, making a lunar crater into farm land will probably take some 300 years or so to make that much soil.

 

[zigi_24]

Little offtopic, but I think that when we establish a base on the Moon, could also mine Helium-3. It is sought for use in nuclear fusion research. If we gather large portion of this mineral, there would be great amount of fuel for future fusion powerplants.

You can read more on,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

 

[sftommy]

PBS' NOVA last night, mentioned a variety of Lupine that was the first plant to return to Mt St Helens dead environment, this variety carries it's own nitrogen-generating-bacteria on it's roots, got me on this train of thought

I find one site that lists the regolith chemistry as Al2O3, CaO, Na2O, K2O, light REE, and Th, but only for particles 10 microns or smaller. One of the Apollo 15 samples had a chemistry of SiO= 46.77%,, FeO - 12.4%, MgO = 10.35%, CaO = 10.95%, Al2O3 = 16.75%, with additional trace elements. He3 was not among those trace elements reported in that sample.

Building biologically supportive soils from regolith and materials available on the moon is one of those technologies I think we solve, eventually.

composting for NASA!

 

[SteveCNC]

just bring up some cattle to start making manure , wonder how they would do on the moon with the low gravity and all . probably go all skinny on us . Maybe get the president to go up and give a speech , that's enough BS for any farm .

 

[kelvinzero]

If we were to attempt to set up a sustainable base on the moon, it would almost certainly involve exploiting the volatiles we now know exist in substantial quantities at the bottom of craters at the lunar poles. These contain water and probably many other useful chemicals.

Another advantage of these craters is that they would provide permanent shielding from solar flares, and some may have rims that are in permanent sunlight, providing access to uninterrupted solar power. Anywhere else on the moon you can expect too much heat during the two week long day, then a two week long night.

These craters would not provide easy access to sunlight however. Possibly it could be reflected in but this is fairly involved. Also, even though these craters are shielded from solar flares, they are not shielded from cosmic rays.

For these reasons we probably will not be exploiting sunlight directly. We may have to generate solar power and use this to run sunlamps many meters under the regolith where day/night temperature and cosmic rays are not a problem.

 

[danhezee]

below is a forum for LUNAX research. They are growing radishes in a mix of regolith simulate and fertilizer.

http://moonsocietyforum.com/phpBB3/view ... a3a6643870

 

[Shpaget]

PBS' NOVA last night, mentioned a variety of Lupine that was the first plant to return to Mt St Helens dead environment, this variety carries it's own nitrogen-generating-bacteria on it's roots, got me on this train of thought

Unless they make it out of thin air, they won't be of any use.
(pun intended)

 

[pathfinder_01]

PBS' NOVA last night, mentioned a variety of Lupine that was the first plant to return to Mt St Helens dead environment, this variety carries it's own nitrogen-generating-bacteria on it's roots, got me on this train of thought

Unless they make it out of thin air, they won't be of any use.
(pun intended)

Actually that is what nitrogen fixing bacteria do. They take nitrogen in the air and convert it into forms that plants can use. I actually don't think the nitrogen problem is that bad. There are lots of ways to fix nitrogen and unless you need to jump start a colony, I don't think you need to ship tons of it from earth just to farm. Urine is nitrogen rich, the nitrogen\oxygen atmosphere in the lunar base is likewise a source that could be tapped. Just put that through either industrial processes or use bacteria and slowly you can enrich the lunar material.

The bigger problem would be if there is anything toxic in the lunar material like heavy metals.

Anyway I am thinking urine and other waste products from the lunar base would be the best source of nitrogen. The nitrogen would be shipped in the form of food for the team over time the amount of nitrogen available should grow. The first farming would involve plants would involve small container that would give astronauts a snack and streach the food supply. Then you would slowly work you way up to a whole greenhouse and more independence from earth for food. If a lunar source of nitrogen is found that would be great, but really if you have a closed loop life support you shouldn't need more than a refreshing of nitrogen from time to time to make up for losses. So long as you are not trying to send 200 people to the moon all at once there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Shpaget]

I know how they work, but you do realize that there is no air on the moon that bacteria can fix the nitrogen from?
That was my point.

So, if you're going to haul all that nitrogen in form of compressed atmosphere, just to stick it in the ground later, you might as well ship canned fertilizer and have your garden ready in matter of days.
It beats taking heavy gas tanks.

 

[pathfinder_01]

I know how they work, but you do realize that there is no air on the moon that bacteria can fix the nitrogen from?
That was my point.

So, if you're going to haul all that nitrogen in form of compressed atmosphere, just to stick it in the ground later, you might as well ship canned fertilizer and have your garden ready in matter of days.
It beats taking heavy gas tanks.

I was thinking of the air in the base unless it is a pure O2 atmosphere and the waste from the astronauts. Canned fertilizer would jump start the farm but I question if it would be worth it. On the plus side it would mass less than the food, On the minus side farming is labor intensive, you will require food from earth anyway and it will likely take some time for the lunar base to build a food supply. I also don't think the lunar base will be supporting hundreds of people at short notice. I am think of some thing 10 people or less.

I was thinking more along the lines of start slow and simple. Move from containers to more\larger containers and so on. So instead of sending fertilizer, seeds and pray send food that the crew can use immediately. The crew will produce nitrogen sources that are urea, sweat, and waste that could be used to fix nitrogen for the plants. Instead of dumping that useful nitrogen recover it. This would be the first step and a necessary one in order to reduce your dependence on earth. Recycle what you have.

At some point you will have enough nitrogen and other elements that may be missing in lunar soil from the food that was sent that you no longer need to import food from earth(assuming your base does not grow). When you need your base to grow, send fertilizer from earth or food for the additional crew people.

 

[Crossover_Maniac]

I know how they work, but you do realize that there is no air on the moon that bacteria can fix the nitrogen from?
That was my point.

So, if you're going to haul all that nitrogen in form of compressed atmosphere, just to stick it in the ground later, you might as well ship canned fertilizer and have your garden ready in matter of days.
It beats taking heavy gas tanks.

Nitrogen doesn't have to shipped as compressed air. Some options include shipping it as a cryogenic liquid or as part of a nitrogen-rich compound. At 760 psi, nitrous oxide becomes a liquid at room temperature with a density of 1200 kg/m^3 and it breakes down into 64% nitrogen gas and 36% oxygen in an exothermic reaction.

 

[SciFi2010]

I don’t think lunar farming will resemble traditional farming. The availability of energy, nutrients, water and space for farming on the short and middle-long term in a space-colony or space station is far less than on earth. (If you take into account that asteroid-mining and cheap ground-launch systems from earth aren’t a reality soon). There is also the possibility of (micro-) meteorites impacts. Most of the plants and animals will probably be grown in closed loop environments sheltered from cataclysmic dangers with or without natural sunlight. This has the advantage that farming can be done in regulated conditions. Algae (and bacteria) are the fastest growing plants on earth (40 times faster or more than soy or corn plants) and their growth can even be accelerated inside closed reactor vessels and by genetic modification. These algae and bacteria can be used for a number of functions for example: fuel, food, materials or to clean water and air. Some strains of algae can create a specific jet or rocket fuel and can have an oil content of up to 50%, which also can be used to create bio-plastics. And now to the meat department: there are now scientists at work to create huge chunks of meat just from a few cells. They have now succeeded in creating tissue from a few cells and it will be steak size (or any size you wish) in a few years. This would revolutionize the meat-industry. Far less energy, nutrients, etc… (and time) would be needed and not to mention the reduction of the pollution (no methane emission) and absence of animal sufferings. In the future the producers of fuel, food and materials could be high-tech farmers. Further into the future we could even use 3D printing for food (materials, artificial limbs, etc... ), which could resemble the closest thing to a replicator in Star Trek. We certainly need more international research and cooperation to modernize and possibly merge the production of energy, water, food and materials, which can also be implemented in the space-industry. The closed loop colonization of extra-terrestrial environments does make us think about how we inhabit space-ship earth in the present and the future.