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Could we Garden on Mars?

scienceblogs.com — You can grow certain hardy plants in the soil on the Moon; just add air and water! So, my question is this: what about other worlds?

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 3, 2009

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  • thebigredcat, on 07/03/2009, -2/+29Martianjuana?
  • Rikkochet, on 07/03/2009, -0/+20I dunno man. The blogger's photo clearly shows him wearing patriotic tights and exposing his chest. You're just a faceless guy on the internet.
    I'm going with the hairy ballerina on this one.
  • JoeHague, on 07/03/2009, -5/+22Sorry to be a kill joy but you couldn't grow plants on Mars (or the Moon for that matter) as easily as this blogger thinks. The Earth has a thick atmosphere and an intense magnetic field. Mars does not, which means anything, and everything on the surface is constantly exposed to lethal Solar and Cosmic Radiation/
  • BigE89, on 07/03/2009, -1/+15I still prefer my Moonajuana
  • Akairenn, on 07/03/2009, -2/+13"The only way for humanity to survive is to colonize other planets."

    There, I fixed that for you. (:
  • Taiyoryu, on 07/03/2009, -0/+10Colonization is not a solution for overpopulation. Overpopulation is self-correcting once resources become scarce enough that people are willing to kill for them. However, that's not a very good solution. Which leaves controlling the birthrate. Unfortunately, unless there's a collective will to do so (which won't happen til resources get scare enough), most solutions (limiting family size, sterilization, etc.) takes away choice if it's mandatory. It doesn't help that there are factions within society that reject birthcontrol and encourage high birthrates. In some places, there are socioeconomic pressures whereby a large family is beneficial. Then of course there's the instinctual need to procreate or the desire to leave a legacy in the form of another human being.
  • inactive, on 07/03/2009, -2/+12The only way for humanity to survive overpopulation is to colonize other planets. Terraforming in my opinion is the best way. The more we can make a planet look and feel like Earth, the better chance we have. If we can grow crops on the moon, maybe we can on Mars too. This would be a great step toward terraforming.
  • GrammerPants, on 07/03/2009, -7/+15Colonize other planets!? Come on! What is wrong with a good old fashion ethnic cleansing?
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  • ELYON1, on 07/03/2009, -1/+7"Could we Garden on Mars?"
    Yeah.
  • thebigredcat, on 07/03/2009, -0/+6i love you.
  • Shidell, on 07/03/2009, -1/+6Terraforming, go!
  • dman24752, on 07/03/2009, -0/+5The article never really answered the question...
  • s4g4n, on 07/03/2009, -2/+7Martian weed everyday of my life.
  • Antialias, on 07/03/2009, -0/+4The solar panels on the martian rovers keep getting blown clean by the martian wind so no, I think any sort of enclosure wouldn't have too much trouble with collecting dust, not to mention they could wipe it off with robots or just a guy in a suit with a squeegee.
  • Langford, on 07/03/2009, -1/+5I doubt any plant living on Earth could currently be transplanted to Mars in it's current state, no matter where on Mars you plant it, but I see no reason we couldn't breed something specifically for the purpose. I guess it would involve a controlled environment that was gradually changed to be more like Mars between generations of plant. No telling how long it would take or how much effort would be required.
  • inactive, on 07/03/2009, -3/+6No. The soil is infertile.
  • boydrew, on 07/03/2009, -0/+2Sounds like an origin for globalistic bigotry... maybe im being to cynical...
  • shalinshaun, on 07/04/2009, -0/+2Plant a tree on EARTH for every martian planet gardened.
  • radu79, on 07/03/2009, -0/+2First you need to worry about making some shelters for the humans that would live there. You'd need to either dig caves underground, or make some big domes out of the sand (it would work on the moon, but not sure if the soil on Mars is good enough for that).
    Then you have to have some electricity for the lights, heat, recycling the oxygen...
    Once you have those things, gardening will become relatively easy. People grow weed inside under totally artifical conditions, so growing other plants is not that hard.
  • woodyex1, on 07/03/2009, -0/+2After I read the article I said to myself, "I wonder what Diggers think". I'm not quite sure why I asked if I already knew the answer. Great comment. Dugg for consistency.
  • nyxerebos, on 07/03/2009, -0/+2Yes, but less so than the hard vaccuum of space. Also, Mars has a lot of CO2 in its thin atmosphere.
  • CeeJayDK, on 07/03/2009, -0/+2I think you over-dramatize it.
    Yes .. the martian surface receives more radiation, but you make it sound like anything alive would be instant fried by massive doses of radiation.

    Besides, plants cope better with radiation than humans do.
  • Tiak, on 07/03/2009, -0/+2I think the point is we might not need any.

    The Martian soil is actually relatively rich in nutrients (though with a pH a bit higher than ideal for most plants), and the Martian equator's climate is relatively close to that of Antarctica or the Arctic featuring, high winds, little to know humidity, and roughly the same temperature range... It seems like it would be relatively easy to cultivate arctic/antarctic flora on Mars (you would have to provide it with water/frost/snow/whatever you want to call it, but that's about it).
  • RandyConrad, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1here isn't enough mass on mars to hold on to Oxygen. The molecules travel at escape velocity and bleed into space. I'd love to have blue skies and oceans on mars but unless we can add significant (very significant) amounts of mass to Mars via altering comets or asteroids and having them crash into Mars terraforming won't work.
  • Subliminational, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1Those damn martians...you know they're all communists...
  • inactive, on 07/03/2009, -1/+2just go to http://images.google.com and search -plant life on mars-

    you will see some 2d images that look peculiarly like trees and desert flora. These specimens may be fossilized and are left over from when the planet was more accommodating to life, but there seems to be something that NASA isn't talking about!

    We would need to do a few things first:
    *Bring back some soil from Mars - about a small dump truck load.
    *aclimate some earthly plant life to that soil
    *aclimate that same plant life to the same atmospheric pressure and gas content.
    *get several generations of plant life from this process to ensure longevity
    *send seeds on the next journey and see of the plant life flourishes.

  • Subliminational, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1That would probably be an extremely ***** life in practice.
  • Barackalypse, on 07/03/2009, -1/+2No, we couldn't, because we'd have to get there first and its pretty obvious our commitment to space has waned considerably over the last 30 years.
  • inactive, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1But no nutrients in its soil.
  • DarkBlueAnt, on 07/03/2009, -1/+2There was a movie where they grew plants on Mars. It had a robot dog in it... I think about growing plants up there every day... to fulfill my dream of being a space farmer...
  • AraleNorimaki, on 07/03/2009, -1/+2that's right Mars b*tches, red rocks!

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1667605413 ...
  • woodyex1, on 07/03/2009, -0/+1Nothing to see here folks. Please move along...
  • maryanny, on 08/28/2009, -0/+1I think this can be possible. However, we are forgetting, that we have major problems on earth to resolve. If we can't resolve the problems, human kind can be extinct!
    Gardening is possible on mars and moon, but let's look first to earth.

    http://www.gardeningabc.net/
  • soomprimal, on 07/05/2009, -0/+1Oh stop with your science and facts! We want aliens and colonization!
  • KingGorilla, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1Someone needs to watch Total Recall. All we need to do is activate that giant alien matian deep within that mountain.
  • Subliminational, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1Sounds like we could have little greenhouses full of blueberries then. They like acidic soil.
  • liuite, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1terraforming as in Firefly? what will they think of next, forming a federation? I can speak both languages fluently.
  • Stormwern, on 07/04/2009, -0/+1Like with most things regarding space..
    Theoretically: yes
    Practically: maybe
    Economically: no
  • lashtal, on 07/03/2009, -2/+2What 'hardy' plants are we talking about? Mars surface temperature goes from -87С at night to 20С in afternoon. So its not like just adding air and water.
    Of course, some autonomous complex can be built to sustain pressure, temperature, humidity, etc. on any other planet, but its not that simple, right? Furthermore, high radiation levels there are considered hazardous due to thin atmosphere and lack of magnetic field.
    Buried for ignorant oversimplification of the problem.
  • RandyConrad, on 07/08/2009, -0/+0Sure you`re just not using a universal translator?
  • ninernick, on 07/04/2009, -0/+0I am still waiting to see an octopuses garden.
  • davidcarman, on 07/03/2009, -1/+1Try gardening on earth first!
    It's easy as plants grow themselves and most weeds are beneficial.
    It helps me unwind (something good happens when I manually water plants).
    It only takes the space that my car is currently parked in to add some totally fresh food to every meal.
    Otherwise have a go at sprouting organic lentils in a jar on your benchtop.
  • RedStateRetard, on 07/03/2009, -5/+5Garden? No. google "nitrogen cycle". Would it be feasible to ship chemical fertilizer to mars?
    Martian atmosphere. 95.3% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen. And it's thin. So you would have to ship in, water, nitrogen rich soil, and a container to hold the air. Which you could also do on a space station.

    maybe simple organisms like red and green algae.
  • chill613, on 07/03/2009, -2/+2We would need to be unified as a species before we could take on a task of that magnitude.

    We are already too good at finding lines that divide us, I think terraforming colonizing other planets is essential to our survival as a species, but we aren't ready for anything like that yet
  • ButchTheVizsla, on 07/03/2009, -2/+2buried - deep in the martian garden
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