Growing Options in Moon Dust

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Placing a plant grown during the experiment in a vial for eventual genetic analysis. (UF/IFAS photo by Tyler Jones)

Speaking of moon dust, it seems scientists have found that they can grow plants in lunar soil. This is quite a surprise given the nature of moon dust. It would seem to be an even greater feat than growing plants in Martian soil.

NASA has reported that scientists at the University of Florida have successfully grown plants in actual lunar soil from the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions. Only water and a nutrient solution were added to the soil before seeds were planted. Plants started to sprout in two days. After 20 days the plants were harvested and studied before they had started to flower. While the lunar soil plants were somewhat stunted and stressed, the experiment was a success.

NASA noted:

This research opens the door not only to someday growing plants in habitats on the Moon, but to a wide range of additional questions. Can understanding which genes plants need to adjust to growing in regolith help us understand how to reduce the stressful nature of lunar soil? Are materials from different areas of the Moon more conducive to growing plants than others? Could studying lunar regolith help us understand more about the Mars regolith and potentially growing plants in that material as well? All of these are questions that the team hopes to study next, in support of the future astronauts traveling to the Moon.

This is a fascinating finding if it will allow us to use the lunar surface to feed astronauts rather than bringing more material from the Earth. It is also very timely as NASA is preparing the way for human habitation on the Moon under the Artemis Program.

We wanted to learn from the Moon before pushing onto Mars. This is a clear sign that we are doing so.

Space Quote: A Mature Rocket Market?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Space Launch System rocket. (NASA)

“The launch industry is at a point where the technology is so mature that it may not be necessary to have the U.S. government invest in it… It may be we’re at a tipping point with this rocket.”

-Statement by Dan Goldin, a former NASA administrator, regarding NASA’s expenditures on the Space Launch System (SLS) in a Wall Street Journal article, “NASA Is Building Moon Rockets, Maybe for the Last Time.” The SLS and Orion spacecraft are part of NASA’s Artemis Program to return astronauts to the Moon.

The Black Hole Sagittarius A*

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. (EHT Collaboration)

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array linking together eight existing radio observatories across the planet, has created the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Named Sagittarius A* after a radio signal coming from a location in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius (the A and * came later), the black hole is 27,000 light-years away and estimated to be four million times more massive than our Sun. The presence of the black hole was not in question, but capturing an image such as this took many years of work.

A press release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) quoted EHT Project Scientist Geoffrey Bower from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei:

We were stunned by how well the size of the ring agreed with predictions from Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity…These unprecedented observations have greatly improved our understanding of what happens at the very centre of our galaxy, and offer new insights on how these giant black holes interact with their surroundings.

For more on the recent breakthrough, you may want to view the ESO Press Conference on the new Milky Way results from the EHT team (here on Youtube), which is followed by a public question and answer event.

Pic of the Week: The Cat’s Paw Nebula

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Cat’s Paw Nebula. (Stefan Steve Bemmerl & Team Wolfatorium, Hakos/Namibia)

This week’s image is from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website. It was the picture of the day for May 10, 2022. This is the story that goes with the image:

Nebulas are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat’s Paw Nebula visible toward the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). At 5,500 light years distant, Cat’s Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula and cataloged as NGC 6334, stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have been born there in only the past few million years. Pictured here is a deep field image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula in light emitted by hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur.

Do You Have Moon Dust in Your Portfolio?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Moon dust on auction. (Bonhams)

With the drop in the stock market and fall of cryptocurrency, maybe it is time to expand the portfolio into some new areas. You can always consider moon dust, a small sample of which sold last month for about $500,000 when auctioned at Bonhams. The sample in question was from the Apollo 11 lunar mission

The auction house had this to say about the sample:

5 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) aluminum sample stubs, each topped with approximately 10 mm diameter carbon tape containing Apollo Moon dust, 4 of which with particles collected by Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, as part of the Apollo 11 contingency sample, July 21, 1969 and later removed by NASA from the Apollo 11 Contingency Sample Return Container (CSRC) Decontamination Bag; stubs hand numbered by NASA scientists in marker on bottom 2 through 6.

A “contingency sample” is basically an initial sample in case something happens during the mission that prevents the the full collection of material. But what is interesting here is that the contingency sample bag still contained some lunar dust when it was lost, and then it was caught up in a court case, and then sold at auction, and then inspected by NASA, who inappropriately removed the moon dust, which was eventually returned. The drama and incompetence of the US government in this case is almost worth the price of the dust. Hence, this is a unique substance in many ways, and it does make cryptocurrency sound pretty boring.

Just do not expect to see many lunar dust sales in the future. NASA is very protective of such material when it is not misplacing it.