[Hplusroadmap] Fw: [Synthetic Biology] BBC E-mail: Plants 'thrive' on Moon rock diet

[John Cumbers]

yes, sorry, snowed under here with the move to CA.  But yes, NASA already
have mock moon regolith that they have made:

>>
from:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20060019180_2006028725.pdf

>>The 2005 Workshop
recommended production of two root simulants corresponding
to a low-Ti mare basalt and a high-Ca highland
*anorthosite. *These roots represent compositional
end-members of mare and highland materials, and can
in principle be physically mixed to target the range of
soil compositions in the Apollo inventory. Lunar mare
basalt simulant *JSC-1A *approximates Apollo 14 basalts
with relatively low-Ti content, and was obtaiggd
by milling and sieving a glassy volcanic ash from Merriam
Crater in Arizona (*JSC-1AF = finer grade)*


I could send you some if you have a use for it,
cheers,
John



On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 6:52 PM, Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thursday 15 May 2008, Pay_the_Piper <pay_the_piper at shaw.ca> wrote:
> > There are many kinds of Moon mineral dust. Which kind/which plants?
>
> Actually, I was considering using bacteria for first approximations.
> John Cumbers apparently has some funding and a job exploring these
> topics. He's around here somewhere, on the synthetic biology mailing
> lists and on OpenWetWare, etc. The minerals on the surface of the moon
> seem to include olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar (anorthosite),
> and the mineral ilmenite is also highly abundant in some mare basalts,
> and an original mineral known as armalcolite is also present. So if we
> could mimic some of this stuff here on earth ..
>
> http://mindat.org/ to figure out where the minerals are and to some
> extent what companies are selling them.
>
> Then the vacuum chamber needs to be designed.
> http://heybryan.org/mediawiki/index.php/Moontank
> http://heybryan.org/projects/atoms/ has links on vacuum tanks.
>
> As for which bacteria, I think cyanobacteria was mentioned recently.
>
> - Bryan
> ________________________________________
> http://heybryan.org/
>



-- 
John Cumbers, Graduate Student
Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry
Biology and Medicine, Brown University, Box G-W Providence, Rhode Island,
02912, USA
Tel USA: +1 401 523 8190, Fax: +1 401 863-2166, UK to USA: 0207 617 7824

NASA Ames Research Center Mail Stop 239-20, Bldg N239 Rm 371
Moffett Field, CA 94035
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