A group of researchers at Ege University in southwestern Türkiye's Izmir have achieved a significant milestone in space biology by successfully growing tomatoes in simulated moon and Mars regolith, marking an important step toward sustainable agriculture for future space missions and extraterrestrial settlements.
The TÜBİTAK-supported project is led by associate professor Rengin Özgür Uzilday from the department of biology at the faculty of science and is conducted in collaboration with associate professor Barış Uzilday and lecturer Tansel Kaygısız from the faculty of agriculture. The research focuses on transforming regolith, dust, soil, and fragmented rock found on the surfaces of the moon and Mars into a medium suitable for plant cultivation.
The project, which began 15 months ago, involved importing regolith simulants from the U.S. that closely replicate the physical and chemical structure of extraterrestrial surface material. Unlike Earth soil, regolith is extremely poor in organic matter and lacks biological activity, making conventional agriculture impossible without intervention.
In the first phase of the study, researchers cultivated extremophile plant species from the Brassicaceae family, including Schrenkiella parvula, Arabis alpina, and Noccaea sempervivum. These plants are known for their ability to survive under extreme conditions such as high temperatures, heavy metal contamination, drought, and salinity. By growing these species in regolith simulants, the team was able to biologically reduce excessive metal and salt content, effectively rehabilitating the substrate.
Rengin Uzilday said the research is driven by the long-term goal of human settlement on the moon and Mars. She emphasized that transporting soil from Earth is not feasible and that plant cultivation in microgravity environments remains highly limited.
“For this reason, we are working to make local regolith suitable for agriculture so that the knowledge gained can be directly applied when permanent colonies are established," she said.
Following the biological improvement stage, the research advanced to tomato cultivation. According to Uzilday, tomatoes were successfully grown in regolith simulants with reduced toxicity, and in some cases, high fruit yields were achieved.
The next phase of the project will focus on analyzing fruit quality and investigating the molecular mechanisms associated with stress responses in plants grown under these conditions.
The study also builds on prior space-related research conducted for Türkiye’s first astronaut, Alper Gezeravcı, using the same extremophile species to confirm plant growth potential in microgravity environments.
Lecturer Kaygısız noted that the tomato plants are still developing and that detailed quality and safety analyses will be carried out once the fruits reach harvest maturity.
She added that comparisons between tomatoes grown in Earth soil and those cultivated in regolith simulations will provide critical data on edibility and nutritional value.
The findings are expected to contribute not only to space exploration strategies but also to advancing knowledge in stress biology, sustainable agriculture and innovative soil remediation techniques under extreme environmental conditions.
