Now NASA Wants To Grow Potatoes On Mars For Real (examiner.com)

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 23, 2015 @11:31AM from the potatoes-again? dept.

MarkWhittington writes: In the hit movie, "The Martian", NASA astronaut Mark Watney survives by planting potatoes in one of the modules of the Mars base who is stranded at. The plot device received a great deal of praise from space agriculture experts, according to a recent story in Popular Mechanics. Of course, future space farmers would be advised to grow a variety of crops in order to diversify their diet, not an option for Watney. In any case, according to a story in ZME Science, NASA is partnering with Peru's International Potato Center (CIP) to do what Watney did and grow potatoes on Mars.

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Re:Wouldn't the three sisters be a better choice? by pi_rules · 2015-12-23 15:22 · Score: 1, Redundant

The beans don't actually add nitrogen to the soil. Legumes are used for this because they form a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria. The bacteria is the one that fixes atmospheric nitrogen into the type ready for plant uptake.