Plant The Moon Challenge
“The Plant the Moon Challenge is a global NASA science experiment, learning activity and inspirational project-based-learning challenge to see who can grow the best crops using lunar regolith simulant.
NASA’s Artemis Program is the United States’ new initiative to return to the Moon. Artemis will explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. However, returning humans to the Moon is challenging in many ways. One of those challenges is how to feed your crew. Bringing all of the food and water with you that is needed for long-duration human missions becomes a problem, particularly as you increase the length of stay or size of the crew. Using local resources on the Moon could greatly enhance our capabilities to explore our celestial neighbor.
This begs us to ask the question, can you plant the moon? Can you grow crops in lunar regolith (a.k.a. soil to us earth-lubbers)? What nutrients, fertilizers, or other modifications to the regolith are needed to grow nutrient rich, sustainable food sources for future astronauts?
Understanding how we can use lunar soils to grow crops is one of the next great steps in supporting our return to the Moon! Through the Plant the Moon Challenge you can help NASA scientists and the academic community at large learn the best lunar crop conditions by completing your own Plant the Moon Challenge project and sharing your results with the world!”
How do I get started? Click here.
How do I expand this narrative arc? If science and space are in your narrative arc think about supplementing this project with another science (or space)-based opportunity. For example:
Check out the Astrophysics Camp at the Boston Leadership Institute
Explore the world of Mars when you compete to Build a Mars City State.
Check out the Mars Mission Project.
Diversify your space creds when you compete to build the best International Space Settlement.
Combine space and engineering in the prestigious American Rocketry Challenge.
For a less time consuming activity, use amateur ham radio to Talk to Astronauts on the International Space Station.
Interested in how space travel affects biology? Check out Genes in Space.
Send a science experiment to the International Space Station with Cubes in Space and Dream Up.
HOT TIP: Citizen science is a fantastic way to study some of the practical applications of what you are learning in the classroom (and advance our understanding of science at the same time). Get your hands dirty with the Plant the Moon Challenge, but be sure to supplement it with other activities that otherwise link it into your narrative arc.