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🌷Plants🌻
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In 2010 researchers sent a plant known as Arabidopsis thaliana to the International

Space Station. They wanted to look at how plants behave in a low or zero-gravity setting.
Gravity influences root growth in plants, but the researchers found it wasn't necessary for
the plant to flourish. Naturally, the plant's roots expel from the seed to search for additional
nutrients. In reality, what plants need is to have nutrients and water available. Gravity has
nearly no impact on plants. This is great news for
scientists who are interested in understanding
how humans could colonize other planets, like
Mars.

Plants would need to be housed in a greenhouse if

they were living on Mars, as the cold and
thin-aired environment would kill the plants. If
you take the bacteria that survive cold weather in
Antarctica and genes that lead to a tomato's
ultraviolet resistance, you might just be able to
create a perfect plant that could withstand the
harsh environment of Mars. But, since the Martian
soil is so low in the nutrients that plants need,

🌼
people would need to be able to bring soil from the earth or create new soil from mars’
regolith.

Mars colonists may opt to use

hydroponics or aeroponics to grow
plants. Instead of roots relying on soil for
nutrients, they can use water and mist
that's nutrient-rich, to grow the plants.
Rather than handling the plants, we can
use electronics to feed them water. This
technique has been successfully used on
earth with plants like tomatoes, lettuce,
potatoes, and cucumbers.
The ultimate goal for Mars is to
create a self-sustaining ecosystem that
can sustain human life. Ecosystems that rely on themselves are able to be self-sustaining
and can self-repair.
An important step in colonizing Mars would
be growing food. Plants convert substances
into living tissues with photosynthesis. The
plants then form glucose which can then be
absorbed and used by animals during
digestion. In order to grow and thrive, plants
need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Other important nutrients are calcium,
magnesium, and sulfur. We need to be able
to figure out how to add those nutrients to
the water so that hydroponics could work
successfully.
Mars’ atmosphere is cold, dry, and very
inhabitable. Plants would need to live in a
heated enclosure, like a greenhouse, that
could supply them with water. It would be nice to have the plant continue recycling the water
and oxygen they put out to make it self-sustaining. Sunlight provides plants with glucose,
which gives them energy and makes other substances like cellulose and starches. Plants also
need sunlight to keep warm and use photosynthesis. Mars receives about 43% of the solar
radiation we receive on Earth. To augment this, artificial lighting would be necessary.
Another barrier would be how to turn regolith into the soil. Regolith is the type of soil
substance on Mars: it's hard and rocky and lays on top of bedrock. The regolith holds harmful
salt. The soil needs to have the correct PH, it needs to be able to hold water to allow the plants
to take the nutrients but also needs to be able to drain. The soil needs to hold microbes. In
The Martian, Mark Watney uses feces to make soil, however, more would need to be done. We
would need to remove salts and add in compost, treated sewage, earthworms, and also
synthetic fertilizers to create successful soil.
Not all types of plants would be suited for life on Mars, even with augmented soil. We
would need to select plants that have thick and fleshy leaves to store water and a waxy film
on them which can prevent the water from escaping. Low-lying plants with lower oxygen
and solar needs would be preferable. In the reading, Awesome Adaptations, it says,
“Epiphytes are plants that live on the surface of other plants” So plants that grow on trees,
grow so that they can be closer to sunlight. This could be helpful on Mars if we have beams

greenhouse. 🌻
that plants can grow up to reach the artificial light that we would have in our

There have been concerns with GMOs in our society. Many people question the
negative effect on human health or if GMOs negatively impact traditional farming. However,
the benefits may outdo the risks when looking at growing plants on Mars. A GMO is a
genetically modified organism, whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory or
through purposefully breeding or pollination techniques. In modern-day, developing
societies, we modify crops to have better nutrition, pest resilience, improved output, and
more. This technology could allow us to modify plants to ensure they have the features
necessary to thrive on Mars. We could modify the genetic makeup of crops to allow them to
withstand cold temperatures and less natural light. We could also modify plants to store
water for longer, as Mars has a dry landscape with no water. Although GMOs can be a
controversial topic, there are ways to use this technology safely to allow us to grow safe and
effective crops on other planets which could go on to sustain human and other animal life.

Sources:

Citations

Owen, James. “Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity.” Science, National Geographic, 3 May 2021,
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/121207-plants-grow-space-station-sci
ence#:~:text=The%20finding%20further%20boosts%20the%20prospect%20of%20cultivati
ng,greenhouses%20on%20Mars%20or%20the%20moon%2C%22%20Paul%20said.

Dunbar, Brian. “Designer Plants on Mars.” NASA, NASA,

https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mars_plants.html.

Sia, Jin Sing. “ISRU Part IV: How to Grow Food on Mars • the Mars Society of Canada.” The
Mars Society of Canada, 8 Dec. 2022,
https://www.marssociety.ca/2020/09/28/isru-part-iv-how-to-grow-food-on-mars/#:~:text=I
n%20light%20of%20the%20complexity,%2Drich%20water%20(aeroponics).

Awesome Adaptations How Do Plants Adapt to Their Environment?

https://www.botanic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/8_1__tttTeachers_Notes_Awesome_
Adaptations.pdf.

A;, Weale. “Ethical Arguments Relevant to the Use of GM Crops.” New Biotechnology, U.S.
National Library of Medicine,
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20850572/#:~:text=Five%20sets%20of%20ethical%20conc
erns,'unnaturalness'%20of%20the%20technology.

http://tomatosphere.letstalkscience.ca/Resources/library/ArticleId/5421/is-there-enough-lig
ht-on-mars-to-grow-plants.aspx#:~:text=The%20maximum%20solar%20insolation%20on,
2%20at%20the%20Earth's%20surface.

Image Source Links

https://news.yale.edu/2021/10/14/weed-winter-how-plants-detect-seasonal-changes
https://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/can-you-grow-plants-on-mars/

https://www.selfsustainingecosystem.com/