Could Astronauts Grow Rice on the Moon?

Scientists in Japan have built a low power device that pulls nitrogen straight from the air and turns it into fertiliser, then used it to successfully grow rice in simulated lunar soil. Along the way, they stumbled on an unexpected bonus that could make crops both healthier and better suited to life in space, one with surprising promise for farms back on Earth too. If humans are ever going to live on the Moon rather than just visit, they will need to grow their own food there, and that means solving a problem lunar soil was never built to handle. Regolith, the grey dust that covers the lunar surface, contains n... [3356 chars]