Green Plants for Mars Mission

An anonymous reader writes "NASA doesn't keep back that they are going to send a human expedition to Mars in a couple of decades. One of the obstacles for the longstanding 35-million-mile voyage is a food production. NASA researchers have focused on 20 plant species that NASA believes could be grown during a flight to Mars and after landing on the fourth planet from the Sun. By far not all of them are suitable for space expedition."

Comments

summary=story

[Emugamer]

wow that is such a fluff piece, it says that the actual information will be released later on, it doesn't mention the species of plants looked at, it doesn't explain much other then they look at byproducts and that they want to help the crew survive... :) where is the geeky stuff?

Re: summary=story

[Black Parrot]

> wow that is such a fluff piece, it says that the actual information will be released later on, it doesn't mention the species of plants looked at

They don't want to scare off tommorow's potential astronauts with a long list of vegetables.

Canabis could be ...

[Anonymous Coward]

a good candidate for the mission. I guess travaling that far can be boring .

Food Source

[cyber_rigger]

Why can't we just eat at the Starbucks that will be there by the time we get there.

Re:Food Source

[Joe the Lesser]

Your right, it would be like NASA to buy a 7 dollar cup of coffee.

Re:Where's the device that speeds and slows the

[chris mazuc]

Actually, smoking in such a limited atmosphere might overload the air handlers. Brownies would probably be a much better idea.

I can see it now...

[ardustry]

...fifty years from now, we find that the only plants that would grow on Mars are ragweed and poison ivy.

the list

[r00t]

zucchini
garlic
kudzu
black beans
trumpet vine
sweet potato
bamboo
red beans
spider plant
black-eye beans
redwood
dill
onion
mustard
catnip
fava beans
stinging nettle
cabbage
thistle
dandilion

Re:Closed System test run

[RAMMS EIN]

Actually, they've tried to do a closed system test run. The project was called Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 being nature).

From what I recall (the Wikipedia article doesn't seem to mention this), The project was either a great failure or a great success, depending on how you look at it. It was a great success, because life thrived in it. The failure was in the fact that the system wasn't balanced very well, and the lifeforms that thrived were the likes of cockcroaches; not the humans that were intended to do scientific experiments there.

Survival of the Fittest

[airship]

Why not just fill a capsule with seeds from every plant on earth and have it crash into Mars about 20 years before we go there? Anything that can grow, will grow, and we'll find out what works without a bunch of expensive and potentially futile research. Like they say in Jurassic Park, "Nature will find a way". :)