PRINCETON — When astronauts return to the moon after more than 50-years, they’re going to need more than the merger supplies packed aboard the Apollo missions, so some prizewinning Princeton Middle School students studied ways to grow lunar crops.
Princeton Middle School students recently participated in the Plant the Moon Challenge, said teacher Christina Lester, who teaches sixth and seventh grade science. The Virginia Space Consortium was awarded $1 million in federal money for the project, and these funds were shared with the West Virginia Space Consortium.
Schools participating in the Plant in the Moon Challenge were tasked with growing crops in simulated lunar regolith or soil. What the students learned could be used by astronauts in NASA’s new Artemis lunar landing program.
“Their goal is to be able to plant in this lunar regolith which would be similar to what’s actually on the moon at these space bases or locations,” Lester stated.
Princeton Middle School’s team won the challenge at the International Level for Best Experimental Design.
“This was through NASA’s Artemis program,” she said. “So they’re going to return to the moon with crewed missions and so in order to make this be a little longer, they want to be able to grow plants and edible things out of the lunar regolith; so the students want to experiment with that lunar regolith to see what kind of crops they are able to grow using the least amount of materials so that there’s more space and the cost is less when they’re planning for these missions in space.”
Students were provided with the simulated lunar soil as well as PH meters, kits with instructions and science journals for recording their experiments, the procedures for watering and caring for their crops, and the results of those experiments.
Team leaders Kaitlyn Artrip and Eva Coleman described their team’s experiments. Other Princeton Middle School students participating in the Plant the Moon Challenge included Rayleigh Murphy, Kayleigh Mitchem, Zoey Dunn, Melody Perdue, Lake McKenzie, Casen Honaker, Jordan McVey, Michael Britt, Jimmy Fuller and Aniyah Christian.
“We only grew micro-green radishes because they would be the best plant for the tough conditions and the time we were given so we could replant,” Artrip recalled.
“We got a little bit of growth, but not too too much,” Coleman added. “But we realized that micro-green radishes took a lot of care. Like it always has to be watered and checked very throughly.”
Artrip said that using the radishes as a lunar crop could work, especially since astronauts would have more time for gardening.
“We didn’t have much time here with things like spring break; also we had weekends when we didn’t have anyone to take care of the plants,” she said. “If we could have taken care of the plants every day, we would have seen more growth.”
Growing vegetables on the moon could be an option for future explorers.
“I think it could,” Coleman stated. “Definitely if you know what you’re working with and prepared, I think it could, like, definitely work on the moon.”
Yes, definitely,” Artrip replied. “ I could see myself as an astrophysicist.”
“I really don’t know the jobs at NASA, but definitely I would interested in working for the program,” Coleman said.
The Plant the Moon Challenge project had an eight-week growing period. The project’s first few days were focused on coming up with ideas and designing the experiments, Artrip said.
Planting crops in simulated lunar soil was more complicated that putting seeds into the soil and watering them. To make the soil suitable for crops, astronauts will have to take earthworms to the moon.
“We used worms because that would help with the nitrogen cycle. Lunar regolith has no nutrients in it, so it needs nitrogen for the plants to grow and have photosynthesis,” Artrip said. “The worms’ casings and their decaying matter has nitrogen in it.”
“Because it allows more root growth and water flow in it, too,” Coleman stated. “And whenever the worms died, we could use the casings to provide the same amount of nutrients.”
Other factors had to be taken into account as well.
“Definitely the LED lights because that was our second independent variable,” Artrip said. “Our first was the worms. The LED lights helped because the moon goes through two-week periods with sun and no sun.”
The moon also has drastic changes in temperature, so the LED lights would provide the plants with some consistency and also with light energy and heat. Providing the lights help keep the plants from freezing and helps the photosynthetic process, she said.
The day could come when lessons learned in a middle school laboratory could help astronauts leading a new age of lunar exploration.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com