Potatoes on Mars: Peruvian team tests if vegetable will grow on Red Planet
Potatoes on Mars: Peruvian team tests if vegetable will grow on Red Planet
The Nasa project could be applied both to an attempt to colonise Mars and, on Earth, to farming in tropical areas hit by rising temperatures and drought
Simeon Tegel Lima |
@SimeonTegel |
22 hours ago
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The Atacama desert is the driest place on Earth. Its soil, which lacks basic nutrients and is devoid of organic matter, will be used to grow the trial tubers EPA
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Can Peruvian potatoes grow on Mars? Nasa thinks so.
In a case of science seemingly imitating Hollywood, the space agency has launched a project to see whether potatoes could grow on the Red Planet, one day allowing a human colony.
In a plot that could have been borrowed from the Matt Damon blockbuster The Martian, the US space agency and the International Potato Centre (CIP), a non-profit organisation, will attempt to exploit the expertise available in Peru, home of world’s favourite tuber, a nation of more than 4,000 varieties.
Initially, the CIP will attempt to grow the potatoes in its laboratories in Lima, in conditions simulating those on Mars, including extreme ultraviolet radiation and drastic temperature variations. It will use soil from Pampas de la Joya, an area in the northern Atacama Desert, where growing conditions are close to those on Mars.
The Atacama is the driest place on Earth with less than 1mm of average annual rainfall, while Pampas de le Joya’s unusual geology means that it lacks basic nutrients and is devoid of organic matter. If the lab tests are successful, researchers will then plant potatoes in the desert itself.
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/potatoes-on-mars-peruvian-team-tests-if-vegetable-will-grow-on-red-planet-a6826001.html
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