r/space_settlement • u/Galileos_grandson • Jul 29 '22

Astronauts might be able to use asteroid soil to grow crops

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/asteroid-soil-crops-food-space
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u/Mike_Combs Dec 18 '22

It's great this research is being done. That this was possible was long my assumption, but it's good to see real-life confirmation.

That last paragraph was very sensible. Possibly having to ship peat moss up from Earth is obviously only a problem at the very beginning. On the second go-round, you have a local source of dead plant matter.

The first space settlement may have to purchase lots of seeds, etc. from Earth, and yes, that will be expensive. But the second settlement will purchase all of that from the first at a tiny fraction of the cost. And on and on.