Thursday, August 11, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Bioengineering

Researchers explore possibilities of growing plants on Mars

October 5, 2016
in Bioengineering, Space, Space & Planetary Science
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Credit: Photo courtesy of NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis.
Credit: Photo courtesy of NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis.

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Tucked away in a Florida Institute of Technology lab, a would-be Martian garden grows.

A little more than a year after the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute opened at Florida Tech with the overarching mission to get humans to Mars, this horticultural research will attempt to address one of the most critical issues facing the first Martian settlers: how to grow food on a cold and toxic world.

No lush, green rows of veggies or vines covered in fruit exist quite yet: The garden is in its infant stage. 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.

With costs approaching $1 billion per person per year, and logistical concerns over the transporting enough food from Earth to Mars, growing food on the planet itself is a necessity, Aldrin believes.

“You can’t sustain civilization if you have to ship everything,” he said.

Florida Tech’s involvement is allowing NASA to work on other Mars-related challenges.

“With our academic partners working on planetary surface food production, NASA is able to focus on the near-term technologies and systems needed to get our crews to the Red Planet,” said Trent Smith, veggie project manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Ralph Fritsche, senior project manager for food production at KSC, added, “It’s terrific having academic institutions plant both feet into the problems of long-term human exploration of Mars — performing experiments to determine how to grow crops off-Earth.”

Palmer and Wheeler expect to introduce their Martian garden to other factors, such as the radiation exposure seeds would experience as they journey from Earth to Mars, as well as root growth in weaker gravity and how much water they would need and where that water would be sourced.

Even if Red Planet habitation is still decades away, the research could have an impact here on Earth.

“Thinking about ways to live on Mars is the ultimate test of sustainability,” says Daniel Batcheldor, professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Tech and project lead for the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute.

“Learning to grow plants in an inhospitable environment like Mars could help us maximize food productivity and minimize the use of precious resources such as water and fertilizer back here on Earth.”

###

Media Contact

Adam Lowenstein
[email protected]
321-674-8964

http://www.fit.edu

Share25Tweet16Share4ShareSendShare
  • Quaise_Energy_Gyrotron.png

    Experts optimistic about converting coal plants to production of clean geothermal energy

    113 shares
    Share 45 Tweet 28
  • U.S. Department of Energy selects Los Alamos National Lab to lead $9.25 million advanced computing partnership

    70 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18
  • Surprise, surprise: Subsurface water on Mars defy expectations

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Study links protecting Indigenous peoples’ lands to greater nonhuman primate biodiversity

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • U-M study: Local renewable energy employment can fully replace U.S. coal jobs nationwide

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • The presence of certain bacteria in the saliva might indicate post-trauma in veteran soldiers

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

Experts optimistic about converting coal plants to production of clean geothermal energy

A role for cell ‘antennae’ in managing dopamine signals in the brain

The walk of Japanese children develops differently from children in other countries

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 193 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In