COLLEGE STATION, Texas — A love for space exploration led Jessica Atkin, a Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences graduate student in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, to produce the first-ever moondust-grown chickpeas.
Using simulated moondust, because there’s not enough lunar regolith on Earth for experimentation, Atkin and her colleagues grew chickpeas to seed in mixtures of up to 75 percent moondust — a groundbreaking endeavor in several aspects.
As a result of her study, future moon-bound astronauts may have the opportunity to substitute a portion of their prepackaged foods with. . .