Would you like Mars with that?Growing vegetables on Mars might not be as far out as you’d thin

Would you like Mars with that?Growing vegetables on Mars might not be as far out as you’d think. Researchers at Wageningen University led by Wieger Wamelink managed to successfully grow crops in faux Martian soils provided by NASA. Designed to mimic the surfaces of our moon and the planet Mars, the team grew tomatoes, arugula, peas, rye, radishes, garden cress, quinoa, chives, leaks and spinach. Volcanic soil from Hawaii was used to simulate Martian dirt and sand from the Arizona desert for the lunar substitute.Dr. Thomas Duck, a colleague of Wamelink’s, is constructing a closed system to hold the crop cultivation. The idea is that the container could be used in a spaceship or to be brought to areas where food supplies have been diminished from a disaster.Finding himself hung up on the idea of celestial crops four years ago, Dr. Wamelink’s project has many obstacles to overcome before complete success. He started this experiment with 14 plant species in 840 pots. Taking between one to five months to harvest, getting them to yield has been difficult. The plants grown in the artificial moon soils produced only half the biomass of the crops grown in regular potting soil and plants grown in the faux Martian soils grew about the same as the terrestrial plants. At least one crop, the garden cress seeds, germinated.Though many of them appear edible, they may contain heavy metals. Mercury, arsenic and lead are all present on the Martian surface and incorporated in the simulated soils, which potentially make the crops poisonous. Further analysis did show, however, that the Martian soil does contain more nutrients than first expected. Phosphorus and iron oxides were found, as well as nitrogen which is essential to plants.“We had three major problems in the first experiment: poor growth, water - often two times a day was not enough and especially on the moon soil simulant, and free aluminum in the solution which is poisonous for plants,” Dr. Wamelink said.Wamelink gave the plants a boost in his most recent experiment by adding grass clippings and manure to the soil. The team also grew plants in a glass house with controlled light, humidity and temperature. “We assume that plants will be grown indoors and below ground, in a kind of Hobbit home, and light is provided by LED lights and solar panels on the surface,” Dr. Wamelink stated.Worms will also be introduced. “We will look if they can survive in the soils and we will use part of the harvest from last year to feed them,” he explains.Focusing on safe consumption is the third part of these experiments, which started in April. “The main objective is to grow crops in large quantities and test them for food safety. We want to make sure there are no heavy metals in the crops, since we know that lead, arsenic, zinc, iron and mercury are present in the soils,” Dr. Wamelink said.The plants will also be tested for important nutrients as well as whether the grown seeds from the previous experiment will germinate. Results will be known around the end of August.All of this work is helping humans get closer to colonizing Martian territory and learning more about the great space beyond our own!–MiImage credit:http://go.nasa.gov/1howO2DSources:http://bit.ly/1WIgnPuhttp://bit.ly/1Y81wfS -- source link
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