Mars has an incredible hold on our psyche. We search for life there, we get very excited when we find water, and we love nothing better than dropping the odd robot into the Martian dust to trundle about for a bit. No wonder then that people are getting a little excited that we have been able to grow tomatoes and a few other vegetables in Martian soil… sort of.
The new research comes from an experiment that began in April 2015. Researchers tried sowing ten different crop species (tomato, rye, radish, pea, leak, spinach, rocket, cress, quinoa, and chives) in one of three soils; Martian soil simulant, Moon soil simulant, and boring old Earth potting mix. The key word here is obviously “simulant “ which is indicating that it wasn’t real Martian or Moon soil that was used but a faux soil, that is, a soil provided by NASA that is a simulation of the soil from our Lunar and Martian orbs. The simulants mimic Martian and Moon soil as closely as possible with the Mars simulant based on material from a Hawaiian volcano and Moon soil on material from the Arizona desert.
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Plants were cultivated in each of the soils under constant temperature, humidity, and light conditions and under Earth atmosphere. These conditions were chosen because the researchers believe the first crops grown on Mars or the Moon will be grown in underground rooms to protect the plants from cosmic radiation.
In the first experiment the Martian and Moon soils did not do so well. However, with the addition of some fresh grass cuttings both soils were able to grow six of the plants equally as well as Earth soil. The six successful plants were; tomatoes, peas, rye, rocket, radish, and Garden cress. The unsuccessful plants were leak, spinach, quinoa, and chives.
However, although they could grow the crops the researchers did not eat them because there was the small problem of the risk of heavy metal poisoning from things like lead, arsenic, mercury, and even iron. Further research needs to be done to see if these metals are taken up from the soils into the plants and crowdfunding is underway to finance the next series of safety related experiments.
Still, in the meantime, our early Mars colonisers, provided we can get a few fresh grass clippings up there, and provided we are willing to risk a touch of mercury poisoning, should be able to throw together a nice little Martian salad.
