Over the past several weeks, we have been learning about Genius Hour. Genius Hour is a period in Science where we are allowed to research whatever we wanted to. We chose to research the possible options to grow plants on the red planet, Mars. However, most of these ideas are still just ideas and have not been put into effect. They could be require funding, or even be a risk to your safety.
It is possible to grow plants on Mars by when the astronauts go to plant anything they must soak all of the soil in water. This helps because there is precholate in martian soil and it is poisionous to humans. Soaking the soil in water gets all of the precholate out of the soil so plants can grow and not be poisionous to humans. Here are some basic facts on how we can do this. Provided plants get water, crops have everything they need to grow. But on Mars, the soil is salty, loose, and lacking chemicals like nitrogen, which plants need to grow. Although it can get to a balmy 70°F (21°C) near the Martian equator in the summer, the average temperature is around -80°F.Mar 13, 2017. To obtain hydrogen, Watney used hydrazine (N2H4), an inorganic compound widely used to propel rockets, satellites, and spacecraft that was available from his mission to Mars. He had hundreds of liters of unused hydrazine. Watney dissociated hydrazine into nitrogen and hydrogen, and then, he burned hydrogen with oxygen, which resulted in water, as follows:
2 H2 + O2 ⇾ 2 H2O
Is it possible to create water from scratch? Not really, since creating water from scratch by burning hydrogen and oxygen would be too dangerous. It goes without saying: You should not try burning hydrogen and oxygen at home. Watney had no other available option, and he was extremely careful to burn hydrogen and oxygen slowly enough to avoid blowing himself up. (we need a safe way to create water). The atmosphere on Mars has about 95% carbon dioxide, which would make it impossible for humans to breathe. There are other aspects future Mars explorers will need to consider when growing plants on that planet. As mentioned earlier, Mars’s atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, and plants need this gas just as much as we need oxygen to breathe.Also, studies suggest that watering plants on Mars could require less water than on Earth. That is because water would flow differently through the Martian soil, thanks to the Red Planet’s gravity, which is approximately 38% that of Earth’s. In other words, anything on Mars would feel about three times lighter than on Earth. Therefore, under Martian gravity, the soil can hold more water than on Earth, and water and nutrients within the soil would drain away more slowly.(in this case, the sugar is glucose (C6H12O6)):
6 CO2 (g) + 6 H2O (l) ⇾ 6 O2 (g) + C6H12O6 (aq)
To carry out photosynthesis, plants also need various nutrients, such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Nitrogen is a key component of chlorophyll, the compound responsible for the green color of plants and for capturing the light needed for photosynthesis. Potassium helps to open and close tiny pores in leaves and stems that take in the water and the carbon dioxide used in photosynthesis. Phosphorus is involved in the chemical reactions that make up photosynthesis.
Lucky Bamboo Despite its name, lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) isn’t actually bamboo at all. Rather, it’s a decorative houseplant known for its near indestructibility. These plants can thrive in soil, but most gardeners choose to grow them hydroponically. All you need is a glass of water at least an inch deep and a support system of gravel (or some other medium) to keep the plants standing straight.
Philodendron An adaptable houseplant, philodendron is recognized by its lush, trailing, heart-shaped leaves. It tolerates both low and bright light, and requires very little care. While the plant is usually grown in a pot, it is a plant that can flourish without soil and will grow just as easily in a jar of tap water. To propagate philodendron this way, simply snip off about six inches of an existing plant and remove the two lower sets of leaves. Submerge the cutting in a glass or jar of water, and wait about 10 days until you see roots forming at those leaf nodes.
Orchids Most tropical orchids are epiphytes, meaning they grow on other plants instead of in soil. But orchids and other epiphytes aren’t parasitic; their roots are covered in a squishy membrane that sucks up water from the atmosphere. Many orchids sold as houseplants come in a planting medium, such as moss or stones, but they will grow just as easily on a piece of bark once their roots take hold.
Air Plants (Tillandsias) Members of the genus Tillandsia, air plants are exactly what they sound like: plants that grow in air instead of soil. More than 650 varieties exist, displaying an immense variety of foliage and colorful blooms. The leaves of air plants grow in a rosette formation, which helps the plants gather water and nutrients from the environment. When displayed as houseplants, they're typically placed in decorative dishes or mounted.
Spanish Moss With its drooping, gray-green tendrils, Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) evokes humid summer days and the romance of southern climes. The plant often grows from trees, absorbing water and nutrients from the atmosphere, but with proper care it can also grow indoors. To maintain Spanish moss as a houseplant, mist it with water at least twice a week and fertilize it with high-phosphorus liquid fertilizer every two weeks. Any Spanish moss gathered from the wild will be infested with small insects, so if you want to grow it indoors, purchase plants from a trusted supplier.
Marimo Moss Balls Marimo moss balls, also known as Cladophora balls, are spherical algae. They can be grown in an aquarium with fish, or they can live alone in a jar of water. To maintain marimo moss balls, simply keep them in low indirect sunlight, and change their water every couple of weeks.
Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) Paperwhites are a variety of daffodil that can be forced from bulbs indoors during the winter. These fragrant plants will gladly grow in nothing more than water and some pebbles. Thanks to their white and yellow blooms, cheerful paperwhites will buoy you up over those cold, gray months.
Aechmea A member of the Bromeliad family of tropical plants, aechmea is often sold in decorative containers in nurseries. The plants can grow in a small amount of soil, yet in the wild they're nonparasitic grapplers, with their roots anchored to a host plant. Aechmea thrives in both light and shade, and it’s not susceptible to many pests. Given their easy care and colorful appearance, it’s no wonder they’re often given as gifts! Although some of these many plants may or may not be edible you can still eat most of them.
Research Articles We have been to the moon several times. Next time, we may go back for a considerable period. And concrete plans for a one-way ticket to Mars have already been forged. Food will have to be grown on location. Is this a distant future scenario? Not for Wieger Wamelink, ecologist at Alterra Wageningen UR, for whom the future will begin on 2 April. He will be researching whether or not it is possible to grow plants on the moon.Will plants survive in Martian soil or moon dust? This question was initially prompted by Dutch plans to establish a colony on Mars. As the plan does not include a return trip, the basic necessities would have to be satisfied on location. 'Mars is still a long way off,' says Wieger Wamelink, explaining his plans. 'But the moon is closer, so it would be more realistic to establish a colony there. What's more, we already know the mineral composition of the soil on the moon, and of moon dust. So what I'm aiming to find out now is whether plants will grow in moon substrate, or whether certain essential elements are lacking. This has never been done before. We are gradually discovering more about Mars, which is why the planet has been included in this research.Wamelink's research will compare the requirements of certain species of plants with the mineral composition of the soil on the moon and Mars. Alterra has a database that can analyse 25 abiotic preconditions per species and calculate whether a plant species will survive or not. The database also stores information about heavy metals and minerals, although as yet, there are no fixed preconditions for these elements. Using this data, he will be able to determine which plant species would theoretically be capable of growing in moon dust or Martian soil. Wieger Wamelink: 'We will then allow certain species of wild plants and agricultural crops to germinate in pots of artificial moon and Martian soil supplied by NASA. The growth of these plants will be compared with that of the same species in ordinary soil from the Earth. Preconditions relating to heavy metals and minerals will be derived from our findings. Our research is based on the premise that an atmosphere will be available to the colony, perhaps in domes or buildings. We are also assuming the presence of water, either from the moon or Mars or transported from Earth. The plants would produce oxygen and recycle carbon dioxide, ultimately creating a kind of ecosystem.' At a later stage, Wamelink also wants to look into the food safety of agricultural crops grown in man-made conditions on the moon in moon soil. The first trial crops will be planted in greenhouses on 2 April.
Before it can send astronauts to Mars, NASA needs to figure out how to feed them there. To work that out, the US space agency teamed up with a research group in Peru focused exclusively on spud research.The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym, CIP), is dedicated to understanding how tubers like potatoes can grow and eventually feed everyone here on Earth—but also potentially space travelers to Mars. Last week, CIP announced that after a year, it had been able to successfully grow potatoes in a plot of land engineered to mimic Mars’ harsh environment.“We want to know what the minimum conditions are that a potato needs to survive,” said Julio Valdivia-Silva, a University of Engineering and Technology-Lima engineer who worked on the “Potatoes on Mars” project. On Earth, the land where we grow crops typically contains nutrient-rich soil, long periods of sunlight and warmth, and a carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere. Provided plants get water, crops have everything they need to grow. But on Mars, soil is salty, loose, and lacking chemicals like nitrogen, which plants need to grow. Although it can get to a balmy 70°F (21°C) near the Martian equator in the summer, the average temperature is around -80°F. In February 2016, engineers created a small plot of land imitating a version of Martian climate where plants could possibly grow. They used soil from the Pampas de La Joya desert in Peru—similar to Martian soil because it is home (pdf) to very little life and few organic compounds. They also created atmospheric conditions similar to Mars: cold with low pressure and very little carbon dioxide and oxygen. The tiny crop, just a few square feet in area, was monitored 24 hours a day (which you can still watch here as researchers follow up on the plants’ progress).Researchers planted seeds for potatoes that had been bred to withstand salty soil and gave them water that had been fortified with extra plant nutrients. After a year, the team reported they had successfully grown a small crop of potatoes—meaning they could probably grow on Mars, too.The group hasn’t published these findings in a peer-reviewed journal yet, and they only prove that it’s likely possible for potatoes to survive in Martian conditions. Fine-tuning logistics, like figuring out how to bring the seeds, water, and plant nutrients to our neighboring planet is something else entirely.Mars may not be realistic. But growing potatoes in these conditions shows there is hope we’ll be able to grow crops in the harsh Earth environment that will eventually be created by climate change. “How better to learn about climate change than by growin\g crops on a planet that died two billion years ago?” Joel Ranck, the director of communications at CIP, said in a press statement last year. “We need people to understand that if we can grow potatoes in extreme conditions like those on Mars, we can save lives on Earth.”
NASA and private entrepreneurs are pushing to land people on Mars within the next generation. To survive on Mars, colonists will need a lot of gear, not least of which is food. Since lugging food adds a lot of weight to spacecraft — and packaged food only retains its nutrients for so long, anyway — any would-be Martians will need to grow food on site in order to survive. But conditions on the Red Planet are different than on Earth. The surface receives less than half the amount of sunlight that Earth does, and dust in the atmosphere can attenuate it even more. Due to the absence of an ozone layer, more ultraviolet radiation reaches the ground. As to the Martian surface itself, the dirt (technically “regolith”) is more iron-rich, particularly in iron oxides. To see how terrestrial plants might fare in Martian soil, students at Villanova University last semester conducted the Red Thumbs Mars Garden Project. They obtained simulated Martian soil, made from volcanic basalts similar to those on Mars, and mixed it with other compounds to make it about 90% similar to Martian regolith. The students focused on nutritious plants, including lettuce, kale, garlic, and potatoes, as well as hops (the business students were looking for inventive ways to make Martian greenhouse products marketable, professor Edward Guinan quipped during his talk January 12th at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.). They then planted the seedlings in different concentrations of Martian soil in a campus greenhouse rigged for light levels on the Red Planet and let things unfold. Despite hiccups in the pilot study (lack of greenhouse temperature control, students forgetting to water plants), several of the experimental foodstuffs grew fine in the Martian simulated dirt. Mixed greens such as lettuce and kale did well, but potatoes — the mainstay of protagonist Mark Watney in The Martian — did not. The clay-like Martian simulant was so thick that it crushed the growing taters, giving them no room to expand. Overall, plants did much better when the students added filler such as coffee grounds to the Martian simulant, Guinan says. The filler fluffed the dirt up enough that water could percolate through and reach the roots.One major difference between the Villanova project and real Martian soil is perchlorate (CClO4). Perchlorates abound in the uppermost layer of Martian regolith, potentially lowering the freezing temperature of water enough to explain some fleeting signs of liquid water activity on Mars. But perchlorate is toxic to humans, causing thyroid problems and even death. Humans on the Red Planet might breathe it in from dust that infiltrated habitats, and growing food with it would be dangerous. “Matt Damon would have died,” Guinan said, referring to the Hollywood version of the novel. “It was never mentioned in the movie, you know — you don’t want to talk about things like that.” Farmers on Mars will need to remove any perchlorate from the Martian soil before using it. One way is to rinse the soil, since perchlorate dissolves in water. Another, more enticing way is to use perchlorate-eating bacteria, which produce oxygen as a metabolic byproduct. That might protect the colonists from serious health problems while also bolstering their breathable air supply. For those interested in doing similar projects with their students, Guinan recommends lettuce. “It grows fast, and you can eat it,” he says. “I ate the lettuce. I’m still here.”
We learned an idea for how to grow plants on Mars. We learned that scientists are working on how to actually do that. Scientists are trying to find out what environments plants can survive in. They are trying to see if plants can survive in low gravity and different temperature. The next space ship that leaves for mars is a suicide mission. My partners and I want to know if there can be plants on mars or if it is just a fantasy. In order for us to know how to grow plants, we must know what needs a plant can or can’t live with. Such as no air, no water etc. We plan to research how to take the plants to mars without them dying. This is key because if the astronauts do not have any plants to experiment with then they can’t see if plants can grow on Mars.
Journal Entry 1/28/19 We are researching possible methods for growing plants on the Martian landscape. Our main problem is a viable way to produce a steady stream of water. The current possible solution is very dangerous and very dependent on its conditions.
Journal Entry 2 2/4/19 Today we looked at the feedback from the pitch. The feedback was mostly positive, with a few negative comments about the lack of research. On Friday, we will need to research more about other plants that are compatible with the soil on Mars and are able to contribute to the food supply of the Martian explorers. We also need to solidify our final plan for our research layout.
Journal Entry 3 2/8/19 Today we researched possible options for viable plants that can grow in harsh conditions like martian soil. We found a couple, but they were not edible and were ultimately useless. We hope to research more plants that can grow in those conditions, and if there is an alternative to Martian soil, like growing in contained space inside the martian base.
Journal Entry 4 2/14/19 Today we researched possible options for viable plants that can grow in harsh conditions like martian soil. Today we really focused on finding out what our group was going to do for the final product. At the end of class we decided to do a webstie.
Journal Entry 5 2/22/19 Today we found a new website for making the site. There were problems with Wix because it required us to buy a domain name. We plan to try and make the current website work for our plans. Today we learned that there are many specific conditions on Mars that are hostile to most plants.
Journal Entry 6 3/1/19 We are still having trouble with the website maker. We cannot find an option that is easy to use and is still free. The problem with Wix was that to finish and post your website, you had to buy a domain, which was expensive, and had to be paid monthly. We are considering Options that are complicated and impractical now, just so that we can make the website.
Journal Entry 7 3/11/19 We have found a viable solution to the domain name problem: not having one at all! Jack told us that we can Make a HTML website, and it is fairly simple. It is just a few body paragraphs and headers after all. We are currently working on and putting the finishing touches on it.
In conclusion, we are still pondering these methods. Most of them are still practically hypothetical, and cannot be achieved using the sciences we have developed so far. These Ideas may serve a purpose in later years when people will actually travel to Mars. The conditions on the red planet need to be adapted to, by both humans and wildlife. Only then will we be able to further research the ideas presented on this website.