nasa Farming on Mars? NASA ponders food supply for 2030 mission

[Crisp]

Farming on Mars? NASA ponders food supply for 2030 mission

Future astronauts may grow some of their meals inside greenhouses, such as this Martian growth chamber, where fruits and vegetables could be grown hydroponically, without soil. (Pat Rawlings/NASA)

The first humans to live on Mars might not identify as astronauts, but farmers. To establish a sustainable settlement on Earth's solar system neighbor, space travelers will have to learn how to grow food on Mars ? a job that could turn out to be one of the most vital, challenging and labor-intensive tasks at hand, experts say.

"One of the things that every gardener on the planet will know is producing food is hard ? it is a non-trivial thing," Penelope Boston, director of the Cave and Karst Studies program at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, said May 7 at the Humans 2 Mars Summit at George Washington University. "Up until several hundred years ago it occupied most of us for most of the time."

Early Mars colonists may have to revert to this mode of life to ensure their own survival, she suggested.

NASA is actively engaged in researching how to farm on Mars and in space, as the agency is targeting its first manned Mars landing in the mid-2030s. And some NASA officials are wondering if that mission ought to be of long duration, rather than a short visit, given the difficulty of getting there and the possible benefits of an extended stay. "Sustained human presence ? should that be our goal? I think that's a good discussion," Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said May 6.

Yet growing food on Mars presents several significant challenges. While research on the International Space Station suggests plants can grow in microgravity, scientists don't know how the reduced gravity on Mars might affect different Earth crops. Mars' surface receives about half the sunlight Earth does, and any pressurized greenhouse enclosure will further block the light reaching plants, so supplemental light will be needed. Supplying that light requires a significant amount of power.

"In terms of the systems engineering required, it's not an insignificant challenge," said D. Marshall Porterfield, Life and Physical Sciences division director at NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. NASA has been studying using LED lighting to give plants only the wavelengths of light they need to boost efficiency, he said.

Researchers are also studying whether plants can survive under lower pressures than on Earth, because the more pressure inside a greenhouse, the more massive that greenhouse must be to contain it.

"You don't have to inflate that greenhouse to Earth-normal pressure in order for plants to grow," said Robert Ferl, director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research at the University of Florida. "Maintaining a full atmosphere of pressure is difficult on a planetary surface. You can take plants down to a tenth of an atmosphere and they'll still function."

However, then, the greenhouse must be sealed off from the crew's living quarters.

"Gardening in a pressure suit is going to be a real trick," said Taber MacCallum, chief executive officer of Paragon Space Development Corp.

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[geertd]

more studying on food

http://hi-seas.org/

[chrisj1968]

CO2 would be key in this and the plants would turn that into O2, which would be a great symbiotic relationship. If they could build large enough structures to put trees in, living there could work.

I'm no scientist but I did pay attention in science class thankfully.

[DocM]

Plant O2 could be supplimented by cracking subsurface water ice we know is there. The remaining H2 can be used to make easily stored methane (read: rocket or other fuel) and more water using the Sabatier process (CO2 + 4H2 -> CH4 + 2H2O)

[Growled Member]

Not only will it be hard but one disaster could spell the end of our colony.

[Original Poster]

Not only will it be hard but one disaster could spell the end of our colony.

i see something like this happening..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/01/jamestown-cannibals-skull-excavated

If I went up... i would eat someones leg the second they say we are ALMOST out of food.

[Elessar]

A long-term trip makes the most sense. If we're spending the resources to get there, we might as well make the most of it. Naturally they would need to assure themselves that they had enough space and fuel for a return trip YEARS after landing. Now, as someone above mentioned, if they could get a sustainable system running, they could potentially produce a balanced relationship of O2 and CO2.