Scientists love to plant trees on Mars

In the near future, NASA has made many bold plans for the Mars program with adding self-propelled ships to the Martian surface by 2020 and will send manned spaceships by 2030. But it will Long before humans could officially live on the barren continents here. Therefore, scientists from all over the world always want to study the methods that can sustain human life and the source of food is one of them.

>>>NASA let people try on . "Mars"

The issue of cultivation and cultivation on Mars has always been given special attention by scientists. This can provide people with food without having to rely on dry and expensive foods that cost a lot of transportation. Moreover, the success of growing trees on Mars can also contribute to increasing oxygen and reducing CO ₂ , so Mars' environmental variables are more suitable for humans.

A NASA-funded project called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation Site (HI-SEAS) consists of six people who spent four months last year researching and experimenting in Mauna Loa volcanic hills in Hawaii aims to investigate the feasibility of growing plants on Mars. The leader of the project team, Belgian scientist and painter Angelo Vermeulen said: 'For long-term settlement plans, we have no choice but to grow our own food on Mars. ".

HI-SEAS laboratory is located in an abandoned quarry at the hill of basalt soil and Mauna Loa volcano, Hawaii

The HI-SEAS team chose the hills at Mauna Loa as the study site because they believe the soil is similar to the surface of Mars with basalt soil and volcanic soil. Vermeulen said one of the challenges for research is to make astronauts avoid "boring menus."

He said: 'It is a common psychological phenomenon in the military. You will begin to feel this phenomenon when you eat and repeat the same food for a long time. After that, you will feel anorexia and your physical condition will go down. The last thing you see will be a skinny astronaut and starving sick. "

In the process of researching how to replace astronaut packaged foods with subsistence food sources grown on more stable shelves, the HI-SEAS group also asked the question of using the What is convenient to do farming. Vermeulen chose to study cultivation by remote-operating robots.

Vermeulen put the problem on Simon Engler, a robot automation programmer to develop a robot that can perform farming in very remote places that astronauts can hardly access. To do this, Vermeulen and Engler devised a spiraling garden system with a robotic arm in the center.

Finally, Vermeulen said he was able to germinate seeds of many crops including cabbage, 2 types of lettuce, 2 varieties of sugar beet and spinach. Although the first models of plants were underdeveloped due to insufficient LED lights, Vermeulen said he was very proud of his positive first results. Vermeulen said: 'The ultimate goal is to successfully develop a robotic system that can perform the steps of the cultivation process to secure food and free time for astronauts.'

The HI-SEAS team has also experimented with growing other crops such as sprouts. Vermeulen used market-based sprouting systems to build its own system thanks to the help of 3D printing technology. Finally, he said his system was able to grow alfalfa, broccoli, clover, radish and green beans. Verleumen said green peas are being used to create curry and clover is also added to the astronaut's sushi recipe.

Moreover, the uneaten green vegetables can be processed and mixed with Martian soil to help plants grow stronger from there to create better crops. This opens up the prospect that humans can gradually improve basaltic soil conditions on Mars and make soil more nutritious.

Dr. Wieger Wamelink is arranging plant samples on soil similar to Mars and Moon

A similar study on the possibility of growing on Mars is also carried out by Dr. Ecie Wieger Wamekink at Alterra Research Institute in the Netherlands. Wamelink seeded 14 plants on soil samples similar to Mars and compared the results obtained with similar groups of trees grown in the nearby Rhine river.

The results are surprising when all 14 types of plants germinate in Martian soil conditions, and some are more robust than those grown in riparian lands. Wamelink also found that Mars soil was more rich in nitrogen and better able to retain water than he had originally planned.

Wamelink said what he found most interesting was that he fertilized the plant samples with just one brush. Finally, he said that the germinating and growing plants in the experiment once again determined that we could absolutely cultivate the surface of Mars. This has opened up a whole new prospect for being able to bring people to life on Mars with the full range of basic physical and mental conditions for long-term survival.