If the idea of lunar hummus seems far-fetched, think again. Scientists working to cultivate the field of extraterrestrial agriculture have grown chickpeas in dirt made mostly of simulated lunar soil, a step toward enabling astronauts on ‌long-term moon missions to produce their own food.

Researchers said harvestable chickpeas were grown in soil mixtures composed primarily of “moon dirt” modelled after lunar samples retrieved during NASA’s Apollo missions more than half a century ago.

Chickpeas of a variety called “Myles” were raised in a climate-controlled growth chamber at Texas A&M University. Seeds were coated with beneficial fungi and planted in a mix of the simulated lunar soil, made by Florida-based company Space Resource Technologies, and a nutrient-rich substance called vermicompost produced when earthworms break down ‌organic waste.

Harvestable chickpeas grew in soil mixtures of up to 75% lunar simulant. As the percentage of simulated moon soil — known as regolith — increased, the number of harvestable chickpeas decreased, though the size of the chickpeas ‌remained stable. Seeds planted in 100% lunar simulant failed to produce flowers and seeds, experiencing early death.

The United States and ‌China have plans to send astronauts back to the lunar surface in the coming years, with an eye toward long-term bases on the moon.

“Chickpeas are high in protein and other essential nutrients, making them a strong candidate for space crop production,” said Jessica Atkin, a doctoral candidate and NASA fellow at Texas A&M’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, lead author of the research published on Thursday (March 5, 2026) in the journal Scientific Reports.

A local food source is considered vital to sustaining ‌people staffing moon bases because of the impracticality of transporting all needed food from Earth.

“In our goal toward establishing a lunar presence — or one on Mars — we will need to learn how to grow food on the moon, since it will not be sustainable to ship food in spaceships. This is because it is still quite expensive to ship things ‌to space, so weight is a factor, and also because the survival of astronauts on the moon can’t be ​dependent on the timely shipment of supplies,” said study co-author Sara Oliveira Santos, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

“Plants would also help produce oxygen and enhance life-support systems for future ⁠human settlements,” said astrobiologist Jyothi Basapathi Raghavendra of Northumbria University in England, lead author of a second study published on Thursday (March 5, 2026) that examined growing conditions for microbes in simulated Martian soil.

Moon soil is basically crushed rock and dust, often sharp and glass-like, formed over billions of ‌years by meteorite impacts. While it contains essential nutrients and minerals for plants to grow, it is inorganic and inhospitable, unlike the nutrient-rich and organic Earth soil.

“Previous studies have shown plants can germinate in authentic lunar samples or grow in regolith simulants, often by adding compost or other types of organic matter,” Ms. Atkin said. “In this study, we focused on microorganisms. Instead of only adding organic material, we tested whether plant-microbe partnerships could help condition regolith, improve its structure and reduce plant stress.”

How do they taste?

So what did these chickpeas taste like? We do not know yet.

“The chickpeas are currently being tested for metal accumulation, which is why ‌we haven’t eaten them just yet,” Ms. Atkin said.

Lunar regolith and the simulant used by the researchers contain high levels of metals such as aluminum and iron. Iron is an essential nutrient for plants. Aluminum is not, and can be toxic when consumed.

“Before anyone makes moon hummus, we need to confirm they are safe and nutritious. Those results will be published in a follow-up paper later this year,” Ms. Atkin said.

The fungi used to coat the seeds worked symbiotically with the chickpeas, helping the ⁠plants absorb some essential nutrients while reducing their uptake of heavy metals. The microorganisms successfully colonised roots even in 100% regolith simulant and helped bind loose particles, making regolith behave more like Earth soil.

The researchers had some fun in ‌the laboratory. Ms. Atkin played lunar-themed songs such as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” to encourage the plants. Ms. Atkin also hung a picture of chickpeas growing on the moon.

“Kind of silly, but something to aim for,” Ms. Atkin said.

“This is a small first step toward growing crops on the moon,” Oliveira Santos said, “but we have shown this is feasible and we are moving in the right direction.”

Published – March 10, 2026 12:01 pm IST

In an exciting milestone for lunar scientists around the globe, India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down 600 km from the south pole of the moon on August 23, 2023.

In just under 14 Earth days, Chandrayaan-3 provided scientists with valuable new data and further inspiration to explore the moon. And the Indian Space Research Organisation has shared these initial results with the world.

While the data from Chandrayaan-3’s rover, named Pragyan, or “wisdom” in Sanskrit, showed the lunar soil contains expected elements such as iron, titanium, aluminum and calcium, it also showed an unexpected surprise – sulphur.

Planetary scientists like me have known that sulphur exists in lunar rocks and soils, but only at a very low concentration. These new measurements imply there may be a higher sulphur concentration than anticipated.

Pragyan has two instruments that analyse the elemental composition of the soil – an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer, or LIBS for short. Both of these instruments measured sulphur in the soil near the landing site.

Sulphur in soils near the moon’s poles might help astronauts live off the land one day, making these measurements an example of science that enables exploration.

Geology of the moon

There are two main rock types on the moon’s surface – dark volcanic rock and the brighter highland rock. The brightness difference between these two materials forms the familiar “man in the moon” face or “rabbit picking rice” image to the naked eye.

Scientists measuring lunar rock and soil compositions in labs on Earth have found that materials from the dark volcanic plains tend to have more sulphur than the brighter highlands material.

Sulphur mainly comes from volcanic activity. Rocks deep in the moon contain sulphur, and when these rocks melt, the sulfphur becomes part of the magma. When the melted rock nears the surface, most of the sulphur in the magma becomes a gas that is released along with water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Some of the sulphur does stay in the magma and is retained within the rock after it cools. This process explains why sulphur is primarily associated with the moon’s dark volcanic rocks.

Chandrayaan-3’s measurements of sulphur in soils are the first to occur on the moon. The exact amount of sulphur cannot be determined until the data calibration is completed.

The uncalibrated data collected by the LIBS instrument on Pragyan suggests that the moon’s highland soils near the poles might have a higher sulphur concentration than highland soils from the equator and possibly even higher than the dark volcanic soils.

These initial results give planetary scientists like me who study the moon new insights into how it works as a geologic system. But we’ll still have to wait and see if the fully calibrated data from the Chandrayaan-3 team confirms an elevated sulphur concentration.

Atmospheric sulphur formation

The measurement of sulphur is interesting to scientists for at least two reasons. First, these findings indicate that the highland soils at the lunar poles could have fundamentally different compositions, compared with highland soils at the lunar equatorial regions. This compositional difference likely comes from the different environmental conditions between the two regions – the poles get less direct sunlight.

Second, these results suggest that there’s somehow more sulphur in the polar regions. Sulphur concentrated here could have formed from the exceedingly thin lunar atmosphere.

The polar regions of the moon receive less direct sunlight and, as a result, experience extremely low temperatures compared with the rest of the moon. If the surface temperature falls, below -73 degrees C, then sulphur from the lunar atmosphere could collect on the surface in solid form – like frost on a window.

Sulphur at the poles could also have originated from ancient volcanic eruptions occurring on the lunar surface, or from meteorites containing sulphur that struck the surface and vaporised on impact.

Lunar sulphur as a resource

For long-lasting space missions, many agencies have thought about building some sort of base on the moon. Astronauts and robots could travel from the south pole base to collect, process, store and use naturally occurring materials like sulphur on the moon – a concept called in-situ resource utilisation.

In-situ resource utilisation means fewer trips back to Earth to get supplies and more time and energy spent exploring. Using sulphur as a resource, astronauts could build solar cells and batteries that use sulphur, mix up sulphur-based fertiliser and make sulphur-based concrete for construction.

Sulphur-based concrete actually has several benefits compared with the concrete normally used in building projects on Earth.

For one, sulphur-based concrete hardens and becomes strong within hours rather than weeks, and it’s more resistant to wear. It also doesn’t require water in the mixture, so astronauts could save their valuable water for drinking, crafting breathable oxygen and making rocket fuel.

While seven missions are currently operating on or around the moon, the lunar south pole region hasn’t been studied from the surface before, so Pragyan’s new measurements will help planetary scientists understand the geologic history of the moon. It’ll also allow lunar scientists like me to ask new questions about how the moon formed and evolved.

For now, the scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation are busy processing and calibrating the data. On the lunar surface, Chandrayaan-3 is hibernating through the two-week-long lunar night, where temperatures will drop to -120 degrees C. The night will last until September 22.

There’s no guarantee that the lander component of Chandrayaan-3, called Vikram, or Pragyan will survive the extremely low temperatures, but should Pragyan awaken, scientists can expect more valuable measurements.

Jeffrey Gillis-Davis is research professor of physics, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. This article is republished from The Conversation.