Some researchers hope to grow crops on the moon

They’ve been experimenting with moon-like soils to grow vegetables for moon colonies:

The crops planted in the soils included garden cress, rocket (aka arugula), tomato, radish, rye, quinoa, spinach, chives, peas and leeks. Of those, the only vegetable that failed to grow well in the exo-soils was spinach. The radishes, cress and rye all grew to a point where seeds could be harvested. The team was also able to harvest tomatoes and peas from the lunar and Martian soils. The chives and leeks grew steadily, but slower than normal. While the quinoa produced flowers, it did not produce seeds. Still, the team reports that they suspect this is the first time any plants have been grown large enough to produce fruit in the soil simulants.

In a follow-up, the team were able to germinate the radish, cress and rye seeds produced on the Mars and lunar soils, suggesting that the production of self-sustaining crops might be possible in space.

Jason Daley, “Space Farmers Could Grow Crops in Lunar and Martian Soil, Study Suggests” at Smithsonian.com

Maybe this is the closest we’ll ever really get to extraterrestrial life. Go there and grow stuff.