Researchers Are Trying To Turn Mars Into A Green Planet

 The scientists shared that it will take seven months to reach Mars. NASA will provide the necessities to the International Space Station. However, the organization can not send the same for a distant planet.

The astronauts have to rely on the in situ resource utilization (ISRU) while spending time on Mars. ISRU is a process of sorting, collecting, and using the material found on the Moon, Mars, etc. The material might be used to construct some useful materials, as energy for the spacecraft and life support propellants. It also includes the food that eventually needs to grow there to support the long-term residents. Researchers are trying to find out the Martian soil constituents instead of carrying bags of fertilizer to space.

The Martian soil is known as regolith, which has been studied by the Mars rovers and Mars orbiters. The planet’s red color is defined by its dust, regolith, and rocks. Martian soil contains different elements, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and many more. However, scientists say that just the elements’ presence can not help the plants grow there. The nutritional value of the soil might be enough for plants but not in a usable form.

The researchers have a theoretical hypothesis of growing plants in the Martian soil constituents, but there is no proof. Since the scientists can not perform the farming experiment on the planet Mars, they are experimenting on Earth by creating the climatic condition of Mars.

At the Florida Institute of Technology, the researchers tried to grow lettuce, a weed, thaliana, etc., with the Martian Regolith Simulants’ help. The simulation helps to mimic the Earth’s soil like Martian soil. As a result, the scientists found that neither of the plants grows on the soil without the addition of nutrients.

According to the researchers’ study published in Icarus, ISRU food solutions are at the level of lower readiness than thought. There are a few wrong assumptions like, the regolith soil is uniformly spread all over the planet’s surface. Professor Andrew Palmer told Florida Tech News that their strategy was to grow plants anywhere on the diverse planet Mars, rather than saying that this simulant can grow green vegetation.

In a new study, published in Icarus, the scientists found five new kinds of Mars simulants. A doctoral candidate, Laura Fackrell at the University of Georgia in Athens, created a mixture of Martian regolith with her colleagues and formulated characteristics to make the plants difficult to grow. The soil may be a low percentage of organic matter or high salinity.

It will take another a few decades to reach Mars, but researchers have started their experiment to grow plants in difficult environments.

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Source : Mars Into A Green Planet