CAN YOU REALLY GROW FOOD ON MARS ?

You might have seen this Hollywood movie "The Martian".If you haven't , its a must watch. It's great. You can rent or buy 'The Martian' from amazon.com by clicking this link and from amazon.in here

The movie is about an astronaut Mark Watney(Matt Damon) who is left behind on planet mars during blast off presuming him dead after a fierce storm. With only a meager amount of supplies, the stranded visitor must utilize his wits and spirit to find a way to survive on the hostile planet. Meanwhile, back on Earth, members of NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring him home, while his crew mates hatch their own plan a daring rescue.

The picture above shows Mark Watney growing potatoes on planet Mars for survival. Many of you  must be thinking if it is possible to grow plants on planet mars? In some context yes. Talking about Mars and the possibility of human colonies is quite old news now. Scientists are almost convinced that the day will arrive soon and they have already started preparations for the things that the human community will need on the red planet once it settles there, the first being FOOD ! There are several research groups around the globe who are dedicated to this particular cause only, which is, trying to grow foods in simulated Martian soils. One of those teams, from Wageningen University ,Netherlands, previously tried growing food plants in simulations of both lunar and Martian soil. The trials were unsuccessful but something changed the last time.

These soils were provided by NASA with the moon soil coming from a desert in Arizona and the Mars soil from a Hawaiian volcano. Earlier the team used to grow these crops in simulated soils only. But the last time, the team added fresh-cut grass to the growing medium. This changed the situation as the grass helped the soil to retain water and acted as a form of fertilizer. Using this new approach, the team succeeded in growing 10 species of crops successfully. These species included tomato, rye, radish, pea, leek, spinach, garden rocket, cress, quinoa and chives.

The amount of above-ground biomass grown n the simulated Martian soil was similar to that managed in regular potting compost used as a control, while the simulated lunar soil yielded about half as much biomass. The growing took place in a green house with consistent temperature, humidity and light conditions and under earth atmosphere. The crops though grew successfully weren't eaten by the team as the soils contained heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and mercury and there was a probability of these contents to be taken up by crop. Encouraged by these results, a third crowd-funded experiment will begin in April.

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