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Scientists Grow Plants in Dirt from Moon

For the first time, scientists have grown plants in moon soil collected by NASA's Apollo astronauts.

科学家首次在美国宇航局阿波罗号宇航员收集的月球土壤里种出了植物。

The scientists had no idea if anything would grow in the moon dirt.

科学家不知道月球土壤里是否能长出东西。

They wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by the next generation of moon explorers.

他们想看看下一代月球探险者是否可以用月球土壤种植食物。

The results surprised them.

结果出乎他们的意料。

Robert Ferl of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences was surprised with the results.

佛罗里达大学食品和农业科学研究所的罗伯特·菲尔对该结果感到惊讶。

"Plants actually grow in lunar stuff. Are you kidding me?" he said.

他说：“月球土壤里真的能种出植物。这是在开玩笑吧？”

Ferl and other researchers planted thale cress, a small flowering plant, in moon soil returned from the Apollo missions.

菲尔和其他研究人员在阿波罗任务带回的月球土壤上种植了一种小型开花植物——鼠耳芥。

The good news was that all of the seeds grew.

好消息是所有的种子都发芽了。

The bad news was that after the first week, the lunar soil stressed the plants so much that they grew slowly.

坏消息是，第一周后，月球土壤给鼠耳芥造成了很大压力，导致它们生长缓慢。

Most of the moon plants ended up stunted--meaning small or not fully¹ developed.

种植在月球土壤中的大多数鼠耳芥最后都会发育不良——即植株很小或未完全发育。

Results of the study appeared recently in the publication Communications Biology.

这项研究的结果最近发表在《通讯-生物学》杂志上。

The longer the soil was exposed to radiation and solar wind on the moon, the worse the plants seemed to do.

月球上的土壤暴露在辐射和太阳风中的时间越长，植物的长势似乎就越糟糕。

The soil collected by the Apollo 11 mission was the least helpful for growth.

阿波罗11号任务收集的土壤是最不利于植物生长的。

It was exposed a couple billion years longer to the elements, the scientists said.

科学家表示，它暴露在这些元素中的时间要长几十亿年。

Simon Gilroy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison was not part of the study.

威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的西蒙·吉尔罗伊没有参与这项研究。

He said, "This is a big step forward to know that you can grow plants."

他说，“知道可以在月球土壤上种植植物是向前迈出的一大步。”

Gilroy added, "The real next step is to go and do it on the surface of the moon."

吉尔罗伊还说：“真正的下一步是在月球表面种植植物。”

Moon dirt is full of glass particles from micrometeorite impacts.

月球土壤中充满了微陨石撞击产生的玻璃颗粒。

These particles got in the Apollo lunar landers and wore down the moonwalkers' spacesuits.

这些颗粒进入阿波罗登月飞行器，磨损了登月者的宇航服。

One solution might be to use younger geologic² spots on the moon, like lava³ flows, for digging up soil.

一种解决方案可能是选取月球上地质比较年轻的区域的土壤，如在熔岩流区域挖取土壤。

The environment also could be changed by adding special nutrient⁴ mixtures or artificial lighting⁵.

环境也可以通过添加特殊的营养混合物或人工照明来改变。

Only 382 kilograms of moon rocks and soil were brought back by the six Apollo crews that landed on the moon.

登月的六名阿波罗号宇航员只带回了382千克的月球岩石和土壤。

Most of them are still locked away, forcing researchers to experiment with soil made of volcanic⁶ ash on Earth.

大多数仍然被封存着，迫使研究人员用地球上的火山灰土壤进行实验。

Early last year, NASA finally gave out 12 grams of soil to the University of Florida researchers for the planting experiment.

去年初，美国宇航局终于分给佛罗里达大学的研究人员12克月球土壤，用于种植实验。

NASA said the timing⁷ for such an experiment was finally right, with the space agency looking to put astronauts back on the moon in a few years.

美国宇航局表示，进行这种实验的时机终于到了，美国宇航局希望在几年内将宇航员送回月球。

The best situation would be for future astronauts to use local dirt for indoor planting instead of setting up a hydroponic, or all-water, system, scientists said.

科学家表示，对于未来的宇航员来说，最好的情况是使用当地的土壤进行室内种植，而不是建立水培系统。

Sharmila Bhattacharya is NASA's program scientist for space biology.

莎米拉·巴塔查里亚是美国宇航局太空生物学项目科学家。

Bhattacharya used the term optimize⁸--meaning to make something as good or as effective as possible--to describe the work that lies ahead.

巴塔查里亚用“优化”一词来描述未来的工作，“优化”的意思是令某事尽可能好或尽可能有效。

She said, "The fact that anything grew means that we have a really good starting point, and now the question is how do we optimize and improve."

她说：“植物在月球土壤中能够生长意味着我们有一个非常好的起点，现在的问题是我们如何进行优化和改进。”

The Florida scientists hope to reuse their lunar soil later this year, planting more thale cress before possibly moving on to other plants.

佛罗里达大学的科学家希望在今年晚些时候重新利用他们的月球土壤，在种植其他植物之前种植更多的鼠耳芥。