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posted by janrinok on Sunday October 09 2016, @06:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the wot-no-sprouts? dept.

To simulate a gardening experience on the Red Planet, researchers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Florida Tech Buzz Aldrin Space Institute have begun to experiment with "Martian gardens," using soil from Hawaii similar to the type of soil found on Mars. Martian soil is made up of crushed volcanic rock and contains no organic material, making plant survival significantly more difficult.

To gauge how much soil should be used and which nutrients should be added, researchers grew lettuce in three different types of soil: virtual Martian soil with no nutrients added, virtual Martian soil with nutrients added, and regular potting soil. They reported that the lettuce grown in the Mars-like soil with no nutrients added tasted the same, but had weaker roots and took longer to grow.

Next, they plan to conduct similar experiments with radishes, Swiss chard, kale, Chinese cabbage, snow peas, dwarf peppers and tomatoes.

Potatoes, guys, potatoes.


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @10:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @10:57AM (#412021)

    NASA, Musk etc spout all sorts of BS[1] about going to Mars and yet they're not interested enough about stuff like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module [wikipedia.org]

    That's real science. That's how you figure out whether Mars gravity might be good enough and what the effects are for at least one season of vegetables. We have the points in the chart for near zero and we have the points in the chart for near Earth gravity. We don't really have much for in between. Building modules like that, doing tests then making decisions based on actual data is the scientific approach.

    Sending people on likely suicide missions to Mars is a waste of time, money and resources. It's another gravity well what's so good about it? There's practically no atmosphere[2] (you'd need to build a cover), there's no soil, there's not that much water and the gravity is wrong. So you'd need almost all of the same things as a space station, with the disadvantage of being at the bottom of a gravity well, not being able to control the daylight or "gravity". If you need ore and water you can get that from an asteroid. Once we run low on suitable asteroids or our technology improves enough then Mars makes sense. Till then talk about living on Mars is stupid or bullshit.

    [1] Whether NASA or Musk it seems like a con game to get more funding.

    [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_limit [wikipedia.org]
    Armstrong limit 6.25 kPa (0.906 psi)
    Mars average 0.6 kPa (0.087 psi)
    Hellas Planitia bottom 1.16 kPa (0.168 psi)
    Mount Everest summit 33.7 kPa (4.89 psi)
    Earth sea level 101.3 kPa (14.69 psi

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @12:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @12:03PM (#412036)

    Why even bring this up? 37.6% gravity is completely different from microgravity, in which astronauts can already live with some health effects and edible plants can be grown.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @05:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @05:00PM (#412116)

    As you have been told before and doubtless will be again, SpaceX does not receive any funding. All of their money comes from their own operating revenue, from Musk's personal finances, or from private equity investors, who have thus far earned a very respectable return.

    As for NASA, they don't actually want to try to send people to Mars, because those plans always get canceled when the next president is elected, and it takes away time, money, and expertise that could be spent doing actual science. NASA seldom advocates for manned visits to Mars.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @09:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @09:08PM (#412204)

      Well, the "Great" Generation put a man on the moon, but then they got old and fat and terrified of the gay vegan moooooooooslims. So now we have to hate everything that doesn't involve killing mooooooooslims on the other side of the planet. SpaceX doesn't kill enough of them, so SpaceX is clearly a politically correct liberal agenda plot to make your kids into gay vegan mooooooooslims. Damn libruls, always trying to get their grubby big gubmint hands on MY social security and MY medicare!