This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As humanity looks toward future bases on the moon, plant cultivation will be critical for sustaining life there. Plants can provide food, oxygen, medicine, water purification and waste recycling, making them indispensable for lunar development.
A study titled, "Assessing Water Dynamics at Lunar Gravity," by space biologist John Z. Hasenstein and Christopher P. McKay, working with 4SPACE LLC, aimed to understand how water behaves in lunar gravity.
Gravity on the moon's surface is only one-sixth as strong as Earth's gravity, and the researchers wanted to know what that means for plant irrigation. The findings are published in the journal Microgravity Science and Technology. The researchers found clear differences in the behavior of the liquids they tested under lunar gravity.
"The surface tension is more of a factor in how water flows. In essence, it doesn't flow as freely (in lunar gravity) because of the surface tension," said Kiss, who is Florida Tech's provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "If you're going to water plants on the moon, you might have to design the whole system a little bit differently than you would on Earth." 4SPACE approached Kiss with the plans for the experiment, his ninth to go to space.
The experiment was designed with Hasenstein, from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, whose contributions were critical to its conception and execution. McKay from NASA Ames Research Center was also involved in the experiment design. The research, conducted during the Blue Origin New Shepard 29 flight in February 2025, tested three different liquids—pure water, a 30% glycerol solution and a salt solution—to see how the meniscus of the liquid—its curved surface inside a container—would react to simulated lunar gravity.
The flight lasted only about 10 minutes and generated simulated lunar gravity for around two minutes by rotating like a centrifuge as it descended. Understanding the flow of water on the lunar surface is important to the survival of plants on the moon, since uneven irrigation can limit oxygen availability and impair plant growth. Lunar soil is made up of very fine dust and rock fragments, which makes it ineffective at absorbing water.
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