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Snap Chats: See the first plants successfully grown in lunar soil

First sprouts of arabidopsis grown in lunar soils collected from the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions.
Tyler Jones/UF/IFAS
/
UF/IFAS Communications
First sprouts of arabidopsis grown in lunar soils collected from the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions.
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You may have heard about UF and its ventures into space in 2024.

But that’s not the only connection the university has to NASA.

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have successfully grown plants in lunar soil for the first time in history.

These soils were collected in Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions from NASA who loaned it to Scientists Rob Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul.

They aim to find out how plants respond to lunar environments, providing critical data for the upcoming ARTEMIS program as NASA gets ready to establish long-term habitats on the moon.

We sat down with the photographer who was brought in to document these historical samples.

Filip is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.

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