Ancient farming methods open up the potential for farming on Mars

An ancient farming method developed by farmers of the ancient Mayan civilization may have laid the foundations for agriculture on Mars.

The soil on Mars has many significant differences compared to Earth. The most notable one is the lack of many essential nutrients, but at the same time contains a lot of perchlorate - a toxic and highly alkaline chemical.

These factors make the Martian soil extremely inhospitable to most plants.

Fortunately, an ancient farming method developed by farmers of the ancient Mayan civilization may lay the foundations for agriculture on Mars.

Planting together

This approach, known as intercropping , is still practiced in many areas of the world, requiring the growing of two to three different crops.

This strategy offers an advantage because it creates plants with complementary characteristics, thereby helping each other survive despite harsh weather and soil conditions.

Ancient Mayan farming methods open up the potential for farming on Mars (Photo: Getty).

Applying this method, researchers at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands have created a greenhouse model to simulate overwintering on Martian soil.

To provide more intuitive results, the researchers added microorganisms and some beneficial nutrients. They also adjusted the greenhouse's gases, temperature and humidity to accurately simulate conditions on Mars.

From the above experiment, they found that intercropping would indeed be a method that could optimize food production if applied on the Red Planet.

Tomatoes are suitable for Martian soil

Notably in research, some crops, typically cherry tomatoes, even grow better when applying this growing method. Some other potential vegetables and tubers that can be mentioned include peas, carrots.

However, tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes, appear to be well suited to the environmental conditions on Mars , and yield twice as much as monocropping on the same soil.

Tomato plants also recorded encouraging characteristics such as early flowering, rapid growth, increased fruit production per plant, and thicker stems.

The research team suggests that tomato plants grow better when intercropped with bean plants, due to their ability to fix nitrogen from the air with the help of symbiotic bacteria, called rhizobia.

New farming methods help bring advantages to many crops in harsh soil and environmental conditions (Photo: Research Team).

Rebeca Gonçalves, an astrobiologist, emphasizes that this technique works well for some crops, and paves the way for an optimized agricultural system in the Martian environment.

Still, Gonçalves notes that because this is the first application of overwintering in space agriculture, we really don't know what will happen in real-world conditions.

"We can adjust the experimental conditions until we find the most optimal system, with more species, and different species ratios ," the expert said.

NASA aims to "colonize" Mars by the 2030s

According to Greg Williams, Deputy Director of NASA, humans will begin to actively deploy activities on Mars from 2030, creating a living environment for astronauts, serving the goal of scientific research. study, and settle permanently.

Also from 2030, spacecraft will begin carrying astronauts from the space station orbiting the Moon (DSG) , and heading to Mars.

NASA's mission to send people to Mars by 2030 is said to be a leap forward in space exploration, but it also poses technological and logistical challenges.

There, shortening the journey time and meeting basic living conditions on Mars are two of the biggest problems that need to be solved.

If everything goes according to plan, we can expect that the Red Planet will bring humans "a whole new life" , with new scenery, new ways of living, and a future. new.