In the film The Martian, there is a scene where astronaut Mark Watney, left alone on Mars, grows potatoes himself to survive. What looked like a flight of cinematic imagination is becoming reality as humanity prepares to head back to the moon.
A research team at the University of Texas at Austin succeeded in cultivating and harvesting chickpeas in "simulated lunar soil" that mimics moon regolith. The findings were published on the 6th in the international journal Scientific Reports.
Lunar soil, or regolith, is entirely different from Earth's soil. Rather than soil, regolith is closer to finely crushed rock powder, and unlike Earth's soil, it has almost no organic matter or microbial ecosystems that help plants. On top of that, it contains high levels of metals such as aluminum and zinc that can stress plants, and water does not infiltrate well. There have been attempts before to make regolith fertile, but plants either failed to grow properly or their leaves turned yellow.
To overcome this limitation, the research team applied two strategies at once. One was mixing worm compost (vermicompost) into the simulated lunar soil, and the other was using a symbiotic fungus called arbuscular mycorrhizae.
Worm compost is the excrement produced when red worms consume organic matter such as food scraps or fibrous waste, and it is rich in nutrients and microorganisms needed for plant growth. Arbuscular mycorrhizae live with plant roots, deliver nutrients that roots struggle to absorb, and can help plants take up fewer heavy metals. They also produce proteins that help soil particles bind together, reducing the phenomenon of soil crumbling and blowing away.
In the experiments, chickpeas grew to the point of being harvestable even when the proportion of simulated lunar soil rose to 75%. Notably, flowers and seeds formed only under conditions where worm compost and arbuscular mycorrhizae were applied together. The team also observed arbuscular mycorrhizae colonizing and surviving in roots even in the simulated lunar soil, and plants inoculated with the fungus had greater dry mass in stems and roots than uninoculated plants, confirming growth improvement.
However, plants grown in lunar soil produced significantly fewer seeds than the control group grown in regular soil. Even so, when worm compost made up 25% and 50%, seed weight was similar to the control group. That means yields fell, but the grains showed potential to fill out properly. Conversely, as the simulated lunar soil ratio approached 100%, plants suffered severe stress, failed to grow properly, or dried up prematurely.
The research team said, "There is a possibility that soil regeneration strategies used on Earth could also work on the moon," but added, "For chickpeas to actually become astronaut food, we need to check whether nutrient content is sufficient, whether toxic metals accumulate in the beans during cultivation, and whether it is safe over the long term."
Meanwhile, the same journal also reported results showing that some microorganisms can grow for a period in an environment that mimics Martian soil, even under humidity as low as on Mars. A research team at Northumbria University placed a Martian soil simulant in a sterile environment and observed it for 60 days under 34% relative humidity, similar to Martian atmospheric humidity.
Measuring the amount of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the soil over time showed an increase through the 30th day. This suggests microorganisms grew for a while even under harsh conditions. But by day 60, DNA levels dropped back to zero. The research team noted, "Mars may not be a place where life is completely impossible, but we need to examine more precisely under what conditions life can be sustained."
References
Scientific Reports (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35759-0
Scientific Reports (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35595-2