介绍:
Establishing a human colony on the Moon and travelling to Mars have been the dreams since the dawn of the space age. However, how can humans survive for months or years in the extremely unfriendly environment of space? What, for instance, will they eat?
Agricultural researchers at a Dutch university are taking the first step towards providing an answer. They are growing vegetables in soils similar to those found on the Moon and Mars, looking for ways of helping space pioneers grow their own crops.
“When people go to the Moon and Mars they also have to eat, and it’s easiest for them to grow their own food,” said researcher Wieger Wamelink.
With the help of NASA, the researchers have made the ground similar to that on the Moon, and the soil is from the Arizona desert, while Mars’ Red soil is from a volcano in Hawaii.
They have planted tomatoes, peas and cress in pots. Like the actor Matt Damon in the science fiction movie The Martian, they watch with amazement as their “space veggies” grow bigger day by day.
“Plants are growing very fast and well. They even start to flower, something that we never anticipated,” said Wamelink.
However, the technology to keep astronauts alive on Mars still has a long way to go. Extremely cold temperatures — dropping to minus 62°C on Mars — as well as a lack of oxygen mean that lunar or Martian vegetables and fruit could only be grown in a closed and controlled environment.
So it’s no surprise that scientists on Earth are already looking into ways of feeding humans on Mars. One day, in the near future, there could be life on Mars. Fifty men and fifty women have already been shortlisted for a mission to Mars to be the first settlers on the Red Planet.
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