Growing Plants on Mars

Sunday, October 9th, 2016

Growing plants on Mars ain’t easy:

Drew Palmer, an assistant professor of Biological Sciences, Brooke Wheeler an assistant professor at the College of Aeronautics, and astrobiology majors from the Department of Physics and Space Sciences, are growing Outredgeous lettuce (a variety of red romaine) in different settings — Earth soil, analog Martian surface material known as regolith simulant, and regolith simulant with nutrients added — to find the magic formula for the type and amount of nutrients needed to grow a plant in inhospitable Martian dirt.

“We have to get the regolith right or anything we do won’t be valid,” said Andy Aldrin, director of the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute.

Unlike Earth soil, Martian regolith contains no helpful organic matter and has fewer minerals plants need for food, such as phosphates and nitrates. Adding to the challenges, real Martian regolith in its pure state is harmful for both plants and humans because of high chlorine content in the form of perchlorates.

The current Mars regolith simulant isn’t perfect. Until a real sample of Mars dirt comes back to Earth, which could happen on a mission estimated to be at least 15 years from now, Florida Tech researchers will spend the next year trying to create an accurate regolith analogue by applying chemical sensing data from the Mars rovers.

Eventually, it may be possible with the addition of fertilizer and removal of the perchlorates to grow various plants in a Martian soil. Florida Tech scientists are partnering with NASA scientists who have experience growing plants on the International Space Station to help figure out ways to make Martian farming a reality.

Comments

  1. Bomag says:

    I’m thinking the plans to use Venus are a bit better in the long run: closer to the sun, etc.

    From what I understand, the Soviets staked a “claim” to Venus during the cold war and sent several missions there; our efforts went elsewhere. Now our institutional interest is away from Venus.

  2. Isegoria says:

    Venus turns out to be not so forbidding a planet.

  3. Bomag says:

    Thanks for the links.

    The NASA study says Venus’s atmosphere would provide sufficient protection from cosmic radiation. I had thought that Venus’s lack of a magnetic field would require special protection for aerostatic habitats.

    Vastly interesting.

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