Fry me to the Moon!

IT’S one small spud for man...but potatoes grown on the Moon could prove a giant leap for mankind by providing astronauts with fresh home-cooked chips on Nasa’s future lunar base.

- BY TONY WHITFIELD

Potatoes can be grown in Moon soil consisting of fine dust and rock pieces if a tiny amount of organic compost is added, scientists have found.

Human waste can be converted into compost, and so the more people who inhabit the base, the more compost will be available to improve the soil and the more potatoes can be grown.

The breakthrough would be a real-life version of Hollywood blockbuster The Martian, in which a fictional astronaut played by Matt Damon survives Mars by growing potatoes in martian soil with his own poo as a fertiliser.

The recent Artemis II mission is part of the preparation to eventually setting up a Moon base. Nasa has already confirmed water is present there, particularly in unlit craters where it is stored as ice.

Water will be vital for supporting life and making rocket fuel. But if the base is to become self-sufficient in feeding itself, crops will need to be harvested on the lunar surface.

So Oregon State University scientists set out to test if potatoes can grow in Moon soil, a fine rocky sediment created by meteoroids hitting the surface over millions of years.