That’s true—water is abundant in the solar system, but soil is magical stuff. The perchlorates in Martian regolith are especially nasty. Not going to be growing ‘taters like Matt Damon does in The Martian anytime soon.
because hot damn, that shit doesn’t exist anywhere else that we know of. Soil is a product of millions of years of complex interactions between plants, bacteria and water and fungus and other life forms.
Actually, you only need ground bedrock, some organic matter and some bugs & and worms and a few years (like, 2 to 6). And Mykorrhiza and water of course, for most plants.
But the Moon is special in that it doesn’t have erosion, the “dust” is in the form of microscopic shards, sticky and abrasive.
While dry desert planets like Mars – with erosion — have mostly the Australian kind of fine dust, which also sticks to everything, but is not abrasive.
Btw, there’s also Orsol farming; growing them on a sponge, with nothing but some fertilizer juice. Though they are usually more bland, since they lack some micronutrients (due to the lack of Mykorrhiza, among others).
Funny I didn’t know that word “Orsol”. Guess it’s another word coming directly from the French : “Hors-sol” (literally “out-of-the-ground” or “off-ground”) which is used for growing plants in an artificial substrate.
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That’s true—water is abundant in the solar system, but soil is magical stuff. The perchlorates in Martian regolith are especially nasty. Not going to be growing ‘taters like Matt Damon does in The Martian anytime soon.
Perchlorates are water-soluble, and there is lots of ice on Mars. But people won’t live there sustainably, so there is no point to it.
Actually, you only need ground bedrock, some organic matter and some bugs & and worms and a few years (like, 2 to 6). And Mykorrhiza and water of course, for most plants.
But the Moon is special in that it doesn’t have erosion, the “dust” is in the form of microscopic shards, sticky and abrasive.
While dry desert planets like Mars – with erosion — have mostly the Australian kind of fine dust, which also sticks to everything, but is not abrasive.
Btw, there’s also Orsol farming; growing them on a sponge, with nothing but some fertilizer juice. Though they are usually more bland, since they lack some micronutrients (due to the lack of Mykorrhiza, among others).
Funny I didn’t know that word “Orsol”. Guess it’s another word coming directly from the French : “Hors-sol” (literally “out-of-the-ground” or “off-ground”) which is used for growing plants in an artificial substrate.
we’d be the compost planet. we’d live on their food scraps, and they’d harvest the results