A recent preprint posted to bioRxiv investigates how chickpeas have been successfully grown in lunar regolith simulants (LRS), marking the first time such a guideline has been established not only for chickpeas, but also for growing food for long-term human space missions.
Exactly.
We already do a lot of research on earth to maintain and improve soils, such basic things as turning under a winter crop which is used as a fixative, making that soil healthier.
Seems like it could work with regolith (as in these tests) - turn each plant generation back into the regolith, composting it, eventually it becomes soil with everything being retained.
It’ll be really interesting to see the plant growth and soil improvements over the generations of composting (which I assume is part of this testing).
“Older than dirt” lol, yep!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event
So I think Azolla (a floating fern that fixes nitrogen) is the way to go to jumpstart an extraterrestrial soil. It’s insanely productive and makes amazing compost. The wikipedia link is just a cool thing I like to share.