Header image: Lupinus albus (altramuces o chochitos), by Calapito via Wikimedia Commons.
21.08.2023 - 11:38 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest
Header image: Growing food in space will rely on innovative agricultural technologies. (NASA)
Lenore Newman, University of The Fraser Valley and Evan Fraser, University of Guelph
Could we feed a city on Mars? This question is central to the future of space exploration and has serious repercussions on Earth too. To date, a lot of thought has gone into how astronauts eat; however, we are only beginning to produce food in space.
Space launches are quite expensive. And with the growing desire to establish a human presence in space, we are going to have to consider food production in space. But the challenges are vast, requiring research into how plants respond to a variety of changes including to gravity and radiation.
As food and agriculture researchers, we explored this question in our latest book, Dinner on Mars. We believe that a sustainable Martian food system is possible — and that in building it, we’ll change food systems on Earth. However, this will take some out-of-the-box thinking.
The basis of food systems on Mars would involve water harvested from the soil (rovers have shown that there are small but significant amounts of frozen water in the crust) and cyanobacteria, often referred to as blue-green algae.
On earth, cyanobacteria can be a big problem as it grows in polluted waterways causing eutrophication — a nutrient-induced increase in phytoplankton productivity in the water body.
On Mars, however, cyanobacteria can use the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and grow on the sandy inorganic and toxic regolith — the layer of loose rocks and dust covering bedrock — to produce the basic organic molecules on which the rest of the food system will rest.
Cyanobacteria is capable of growing in Martian conditions, which has the
Header image: Lupinus albus (altramuces o chochitos), by Calapito via Wikimedia Commons.
Briardo Llorente, Macquarie University
Header image: *Psyche Delia*/Flickr, CC BY-NC
Header image: Born in space: I’d rather not come down to Earth. geniusdevil
Adrienne Macartney, University of Glasgow
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
The role downunder played in helping track the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon.
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
Header image: Virgin Galactic’s Carrier Aircraft VMS Eve and VSS Unity Take to the Skies (Virgin Galactic)
Header image: What makes more sense: Sending a human or a robot to Mars? Credit: Juergen Faelchle/Shutterstock.com
Header image: Anastasiya (left) and myself working on the Haughton crater rim. Mars Society, Author provided.