Mars Ideas, Tips & Guides

Header image: An artist’s depiction of a fictional Mars colony, with solar arrays and underground greenhouses. Image credit: NASA

Gardeners of the Galaxy friend Wieger Wamelink and his research team at Wageningen University & Research and the B.A.S.E. project investigate how we can create a circular and sustainable agricultural ecosystem for food production… on the Moon or Mars.

Header image: <a href=«https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pink-water-lily-lake-goldfish-142067443?src=» http:>NagyDodo/Shutterstock

Ashley Dove-Jay, University of Bristol

Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!

Header image: Andrew Taylor. Spud Fit/Facebook

Briardo Llorente, Macquarie University

Header image: Suited up to simulate the conditions of working outside on Mars. Jonathan Clarke (the author, left) with visiting engineer Michael Curtis-Rouse, from UK Space Agency (right). Jonathan Clarke personal collection, Author provided.

Two researchers from the University of Central Florida – Kevin Cannon and Daniel Britt – have been looking at how a Martian colony might feed itself. Although NASA has been growing some food on the International Space Station, its goal is to supplement the vitamins and minerals in a standard astronaut diet and to improve crew morale – it’s not about making a space station, or a colony, self-sufficient.

Astronaut Steven Swanson tending to the Veggie garden on the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

Move over, Mark Watney, there’s a new space botanist heading for Mars! Ryan and I have just finished watching the new Netflix series Away, which follows (over 10 episodes) the quest of five international astronauts to be the first people to set foot on the red planet.

This week, Gardeners Off World watched as the latest SpaceX launch (CRS-19) delivered more exciting experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).

In Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs I talk about the journeys plants have made with us – crisscrossing the globe and leaving Earth entirely for missions in space.

Header image: Out of this world. NASA

This morning, the Boeing Company’s CST-100 Starliner capsule launched on its first mission to the International Space Station. The aim of this uncrewed Orbital Test Flight (OFT) was to demonstrate that the spacecraft is ready to transport NASA astronauts and cargo. An instrumented mannequin named Rosie (named after the WW2 icon Rosie the Riveter, and a nod to the trailblazing women in aerospace and human spaceflight) took the place of a crew. 

I’m hoping to go and see The Martian soon, one of the few films to feature a botanist as the hero. Astronaut Mark Watney is one of the first humans to set foot on Mars, but accidentally gets left behind and has to survive on his own – and to do so he grows potatoes. He wouldn’t be the first person (or even population) to rely on potatoes for survival, but here on Earth there’s a slight snag. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) has an arch nemesis – late blight, caused by an organism called Phytophthora infestans. It cuts down both potatoes and tomatoes, and was the biological cause of the Irish Potato Famine in the 19th century.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps important spacecraft Arrivals and Departures and learns about growing nutrients and medicines in space. There’s a new plant experiment running on the International Space Station, and exciting news from ESA.

Welcome interplanetary gardeners! This week’s Gardeners off World starts with a little video Boeing has put together of the inside of the crew cabin on the recent Starliner test flight (the one that took tree seeds into space). You can see Rosie the instrumented mannequin, but the highlight is watching astronaut Snoopy float about as the spacecraft reaches orbit, and then plop back down into his seat during the descent!

Ever since we watched Away, Ryan and I have a new toast: “To Mars”. Unlike that fictional crew, we have no hope of ever reaching the red planet. But there are an increasing number of days when I think it would be nice to leave humanity’s mess behind and start afresh on a new world. But the prospect of forming a colony elsewhere in the solar system is a long way off, and when people talk about life on Mars they’re usually referring to alien life. 

Header image: The future of agriculture? Nick Dragotta

Michael Dixon, University of Guelph

Barbara Cavalazzi, Università di Bologna

The red planet. It may hold no life, but is it dead? [Image credit: NASA/JPL]

Header image: Purple microbial mats offer clues to how ancient life functioned. Pieter Visscher, CC BY-ND

Header image: Terrae Novae destinations: Mars. Credit: ESA–Olivier Pâques

Spend many months attached to the ISS and see how well you grow. [Image credit: NASA, CC BY]

Adrienne Macartney, University of Glasgow

A little while ago, I told you about a preliminary experiment that Dr Wieger Wamelink and his team at the University of Wageningen conducted. It demonstrated that it is possible to grow plants in simulated Mars and Moon soils. 

Crew at the International Space Station capture Typhoon Noru [Image credit: NASA]

Header image: Artist’s concept of astronauts and human habitats on Mars. NASA

Header image: Ella and Nicki at the Mars Desert Research Station. Provided by the author.

Can we grow food on the Moon or Mars? That was the question that started Dr Wieger Wamelink, ecologist and exobiologist at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, on a research quest in 2013.

Header image: The prototype space greenhouse developed by the TIME SCALE project showed that it is possible to recycle nutrients and water to grow food. Image credit – Karoliussen

Last week, Thales UK and Thales Alenia Space announced their MARSBalloon 2021 project. They plan to launch more than 150 experiment capsules on high altitude balloons 30km up into the Earth’s atmosphere in June 2021. At those altitudes, the gas pressure, temperature and radiation are very similar to those on the surface of Mars. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this project is that UK students will fill those experiment capsules. School students and science clubs can carry out Mars-analogue science experiments, with no costs beyond materials and postage. The only catch? It has to fit into a plastic Kinder Egg™ capsule.

“Bugging in” is a term that Preppers use to describe sheltering in place – staying at home during a potentially threatening situation. It’s the opposite of “bugging out”, where you grab your pre-packed bag of essentials and leave home to find a more secure location to weather the storm. 

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners off World! On 15 February, the NG-13 cargo ship blasted off from NASA Wallops on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). It arrived on 18 February, where NASA astronaut Drew Morgan caught it with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.