this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2026
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Yeah, we NEED to find a way to cheat, cheating is what will let us actually do any of this.
You need far less composting agents this way, you can add a little to a lot of moon soil to make it fertile enough for growth, and then once plants get started it will work towards making even more compost/soil.
Compost is biomaterial so it manly consists of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. The only part of that you can find on the moon is oxygen, so you can't expand beyond the amount of air and biomass (manly food) you ship from earth.
You can also find hydrogen in the water at the poles. Nitrogen, yep, that's a big one.
Yes, but this means you don't have to take dirt with you as well. Dirt is heavy.