Chickpeas Grown in Simulated Moon Dirt -- With Help From Worms and Fungi

The menu options for future moon colonists just got a little more interesting. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University have grown chickpeas -- actual, harvestable chickpeas -- in simulated lunar soil, the first time this protein-rich crop has been produced in such a medium.

Whether you would want to eat them is a separate question. That part is still being worked out.

The problem with moon dirt

Lunar regolith, the technical term for the powdery surface material on the moon, is not soil in any meaningful agricultural sense. It contains no organic matter, no microorganisms, and none of the biological infrastructure that makes Earth soil capable of supporting plant life. It does contain some minerals and nutrients that plants can use, but it also carries heavy metals that could be toxic.

The researchers used a commercially available simulant from Exolith Labs, formulated to match the composition of actual lunar samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. Working with the real thing was not an option -- genuine moon dirt is extraordinarily scarce and expensive.

Worm compost and fungal coatings

To transform this hostile growing medium into something that might support plant life, the team employed two biological tools. First, they mixed the lunar simulant with vermicompost -- a nutrient-rich material produced by red wiggler earthworms as they digest organic waste like food scraps and cotton-based textiles. On a real lunar mission, these worms could process waste that would otherwise be discarded.

Second, they coated the chickpea seeds with arbuscular mycorrhizae, a type of fungus that forms a symbiotic relationship with plants. The fungi help the plant take up essential nutrients while reducing the absorption of heavy metals -- a critical function given the metal content of lunar regolith.

The chickpeas were then planted in mixtures containing varying proportions of moon dirt and vermicompost.

75% moon dirt, and then trouble

Mixtures of up to 75% lunar simulant produced harvestable chickpeas. Beyond that threshold, things went wrong. Plants showed signs of stress and died early. Still, even the stressed plants survived longer when they had been inoculated with the mycorrhizal fungi, demonstrating the importance of the fungal symbiosis.

A particularly encouraging finding: the fungi were able to colonize and survive in the lunar simulant itself. This suggests that in a real growing operation, the fungi would only need to be introduced once rather than with every planting cycle.

Can you eat them? That is the open question

Growing chickpeas in moon dirt is a milestone, but it is only half the story. The researchers still need to determine whether the harvested chickpeas are nutritionally adequate and, more importantly, whether they absorbed toxic heavy metals during growth.

Jessica Atkin, the study's first author and a doctoral candidate at Texas A&M, framed the remaining questions directly: How healthy are the chickpeas? Do they contain the nutrients astronauts need? And if they are not safe to eat now, how many generations of selective growing would it take before they are?

These are not trivial concerns. Heavy metal contamination in food crops is a well-documented problem even on Earth, and lunar regolith contains metals like chromium and nickel at levels that could pose risks.

Why chickpeas, and why it matters for space agriculture

Chickpeas are an attractive candidate for space farming for several reasons. They are calorie-dense, high in protein, and as legumes, they can fix nitrogen in soil -- potentially improving the growing medium for future crops. They also store well, a practical advantage in any long-duration space mission.

The broader significance of this work extends beyond any single crop. As NASA prepares for the Artemis program and looks toward sustained human presence on the moon, the ability to grow food locally rather than shipping everything from Earth becomes a logistical necessity. Every kilogram launched to the moon costs thousands of dollars.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, was initially self-funded by the researchers before receiving a NASA FINESST grant. The principal investigator, Sara Santos, is a distinguished postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.