After years of trial and error, NASA figured out how to successfully grow salad in space. So what does this breakthrough mean? Are we one step closer to colonizing other planets?
NASA’s Plan To Use A Giant Magnet To Make Mars Habitable
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New Plant Habitat Will Increase Harvest on International Space Station
“The large, enclosed chamber measures 18 inches square, with two inches for the root system and 16 inches available for growth height. It is designed to support commercial and fundamental plant research or other bioscience research aboard the space station for up to a 135-day science investigation, and for at least one year of continuous operation without maintenance.”
Colonizing Mars Will Rely on These Next-Gen Technologies
“A spacecraft would excavate the rocky material on an asteroid and then extract the water molecules that are chemically bound to the rock’s clay minerals. Next, the craft would deliver the collected water to an orbiting depot, where the water would be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used as rocket fuel. A space tug would then collect the fuel and rendezvous with a recently launched satellite, where the tug would inject the fuel and boost the satellite into its final orbit. ”
Here’s How Extraterrestrial Farming Will Work on Mars
“The researchers suggest that before a human even sets foot on Mars, a robotic mission could land months in advance with the sole purpose of preparing the Martian regolith for agriculture. Farm bots could extract the regolith and perform perchlorate remediation tasks while introducing the necessary biology to set up the cycles necessary for plant life to thrive. The idea is to establish a viable Mars farm ahead of a human mission that’s ready for the astronauts to take over as soon as they land.”
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Written by Aneeta Akhurst and Paige Hansen
