Space farms will feed astronauts and earthlings

21.08.2023 - 11:50 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest

Matt Damon as astronaut and exobotanist Mark Watney in the film The Martian grows crops on Mars. (20th Century Fox/Handout)

Michael Dixon, University of Guelph

Editor’s note: Canada Day 2017 marked the sesquicentennial of Confederation. While the anniversary is a chance to reflect on the past, The Conversation Canada asked some of our academic authors to look down the road a further 150 years – or “Canada +150.” What will our world and other worlds be like in 2167? Scientist Michael Dixon suggests there will be a distinctly Canadian advantage when it comes to growing crops on Mars.

Canadian researchers are leading an effort to grow crops in space, paving the way for humanity to live on other worlds and push the frontiers on Earth.

Food is the main obstacle to long-term space exploration. It limits how far away from Earth we can travel and how long we can stay in space.

We can stock enough food for inhabitants of the International Space Station or even for travel to the moon and back. But if we are to travel to Mars and support long-term exploration missions, we need bio-regenerative, self-sustaining food production systems. Or, in simpler terms, space farms.

Farming in space is probably one of the biggest challenges we will have to overcome if we are ever going to spend extended periods on the red planet within the next 150 years. But it’s a challenge Canadians can definitely lead in tackling.

Although people have signed up to be a part of the first human settlement on Mars, our next home planet is more likely to be one with fewer environmental challenges.

Mars has a miserable climate. Its average temperature is below -60℃, its atmospheric pressure is less than one per cent of Earth’s and made up largely of carbon dioxide,