Could crops be modified to grow on Mars?
Posted 03-20-2015 at 01:09 PM by info4yourlife2015
Modifying plants to survive in a variety of unfavourable conditions has helped countries around the world to feed people who live in areas facing drought, extreme wind, poor soil, and many other challenges. So would it be possible to create crops that could grow on Mars?
According to Anna-Lisa Paul, a research associate professor in horticultural science at the University of Florida, the answer is 'not yet', but she's not ruling it out down the road.
“You can engineer plants to be more resistant to cold (a simple web search will pull up thousands of articles). But can we engineer plants to survive on the open surface of Mars? The answer to this is 'no', or at least not yet, but there are many researchers intrigued by the idea,” says Paul.
Plants can survive some of the temperature swings seen on Mars, but other factors trigger a greater challenge, Paul points out. For example, the air pressure on the surface of Mars is less than 1/100th of Earth's at sea level.
“Many people are familiar with the fact that water boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes,” she explains. “This is because the atmospheric pressure is reduced the higher in elevation you climb.” On the surface of Mars, the atmosphere is almost 100 times less dense, and at this pressure, water 'boils' as soon as it melts, so it is difficult to maintain the normal waterborne process in cells.
“This is where physics meets biology,” she continues. “Everything we know of needs liquid water at some point in its life cycle, even seemingly 'dry' organisms, like lichens.”
Therefore, the practical answer for growing plants on Mars in the near future is probably through the use of reduced-pressure greenhouses, Paul says. Still, with continued imagination and innovation in plant science, there may be a different solution to the problem.
“One intriguing thought that is out of the reach of our current molecular toolbox is to engineer a plant that can essentially create its own sealed microenvironment as it grows,” she said. “It's fun stuff to think about.”
According to Anna-Lisa Paul, a research associate professor in horticultural science at the University of Florida, the answer is 'not yet', but she's not ruling it out down the road.
“You can engineer plants to be more resistant to cold (a simple web search will pull up thousands of articles). But can we engineer plants to survive on the open surface of Mars? The answer to this is 'no', or at least not yet, but there are many researchers intrigued by the idea,” says Paul.
Plants can survive some of the temperature swings seen on Mars, but other factors trigger a greater challenge, Paul points out. For example, the air pressure on the surface of Mars is less than 1/100th of Earth's at sea level.
“Many people are familiar with the fact that water boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes,” she explains. “This is because the atmospheric pressure is reduced the higher in elevation you climb.” On the surface of Mars, the atmosphere is almost 100 times less dense, and at this pressure, water 'boils' as soon as it melts, so it is difficult to maintain the normal waterborne process in cells.
“This is where physics meets biology,” she continues. “Everything we know of needs liquid water at some point in its life cycle, even seemingly 'dry' organisms, like lichens.”
Therefore, the practical answer for growing plants on Mars in the near future is probably through the use of reduced-pressure greenhouses, Paul says. Still, with continued imagination and innovation in plant science, there may be a different solution to the problem.
“One intriguing thought that is out of the reach of our current molecular toolbox is to engineer a plant that can essentially create its own sealed microenvironment as it grows,” she said. “It's fun stuff to think about.”
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