Ep. 380 - Learning to Grow Plants on the Moon
In Defense of Plants Podcast
In Defense of Plants
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2022
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can we grow plants in moon soil or regolith? If so, how are they going to respond? These are the kinds of questions Dr. Robert Ferl and his colleagues set out to answer in their latest experiment. Tune in and learn how an emergency rover repair during the last Apollo mission and over a decade of patience and planning have now provided answers as well as generated even more fascinating questions to explore. This episode was produced in part by Whitney, Kenned, Margaret, Daniel, Karen, David, Earl, Jocelyn, Gary, Krysta, Elizabeth, Southern California Carnivorous Plant Enthusiasts, Pattypollinators, Peter, Judson, Ella, Alex, Dan, Pamela, Peter, Andrea, Nathan, Karyn, Michelle, Jillian, Chellie, Linda, Laura, Miz Holly, Christie, Carlos, Paleo Fern, Levi, Sylvia, Lanny, Ben, Lily, Craig, Sarah, Lor, Monika, Brandon, Jeremy, Suzanne, Kristina, Christine, Silas, Michael, Aristia, Felicidad, Lauren, Danielle, Allie, Jeffrey, Amanda, Tommy, Marcel, C Leigh, Karma, Shelby, Christopher, Alvin, Arek, Chellie, Dani, Paul, Dani, Tara, Elly, Colleen, Natalie, Nathan, Ario, Laura, Cari, Margaret, Mary, Connor, Nathan, Jan, Jerome, Brian, Azomonas, Ellie, University Greens, Joseph, Melody, Patricia, Matthew, Garrett, John, Ashley, Cathrine, Melvin, OrangeJulian, Porter, Jules, Griff, Joan, Megan, Marabeth, Les, Ali, Southside Plants, Keiko, Robert, Bryce, Wilma, Amanda, Helen, Mikey, Michelle, German, Joerg, Cathy, Tate, Steve, Kae, Carole, Mr. Keith Santner, Lynn, Aaron, Sara, Kenned, Brett, Jocelyn, Ethan, Sheryl, Runaway Goldfish, Ryan, Chris, Alana, Rachel, Joanna, Lori, Paul, Griff, Matthew, Bobby, Vaibhav, Steven, Joseph, Brandon, Liam, Hall, Jared, Brandon, Christina, Carly, Kazys, Stephen, Katherine, Mohsin Kazmi Takes Pictures, Manny, doeg, Daniel, Tim, Philip, Tim, Lisa, Brodie, Bendix, Irene, holly, Sara, and Margie.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefensible Plants podcast, the official podcast of Indefensibleplants.com. What's up? This is your host, Matt. Welcome to the show. How is everyone doing this week? What is it going to take to grow plants on the moon? Well, thanks to my guests and his colleagues, you're going to find out. Today we're hearing from Dr. Robert Furl, who if you've been listening to the podcast |
| 0:21.5 | since the beginning, you will recognize from a previous episode where we talked about plants in |
| 0:25.3 | space. Well, today we're going to be hearing from him about an experiment that he and his colleagues |
| 0:30.0 | did using moon soil, or as they call it, regalith to grow plants. That's right. We now know we can |
| 0:37.1 | grow plants in moon regolith. This is super |
| 0:40.8 | exciting and along the way we're going to hear about the history of plants and space and just how |
| 0:45.4 | much of a role they have played in space exploration since the beginning. But I don't want to steal |
| 0:50.7 | any of us thunder. So let's just jump right into it. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Dr. Robert Furrell. |
| 0:56.4 | I hope you enjoy. |
| 1:15.5 | All right, Dr. Robert Furrell, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast. |
| 1:17.2 | It has been quite a while. |
| 1:21.7 | So for those that haven't listened to the entire back catalog, how about we start off with an introduction? |
| 1:24.6 | Tell us a little bit about who you are and what it is you do. |
| 1:27.0 | Hi, my name's Rob Furrell. |
| 1:31.0 | I'm a professor and scientist at the University of Florida. |
| 1:39.5 | I've worked with plants historically, and my current, and for the last maybe 25 years, major interest is plants in space, plants in support of human exploration, and plants in very strange environments. |
| 1:48.8 | Well, when it comes to plants, I would say there isn't a stranger environment than literally |
| 1:53.5 | anywhere off this planet. So what got you going down that road? I mean, where did all of this |
| 1:59.3 | interest start for you? That's a really, really good question. How would somebody that's a molecular biologist |
| 2:06.6 | and a plant biologist find out or even learn about or yet alone be captured by the notion of |
| 2:14.6 | looking at plants in space, looking at plants on the moon. Very, very good |
| 2:20.3 | question. So the, and I think there are two, two answers. One of them is philosophical and one |
... |
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