The Future of Farming on Mars

Farming on Mars will bring agriculture to new worlds. But, Martian soil isn’t known for growing plants. A new study aims to change that.

The future of farming on Mars depends on developing means to transform the Martian crust into fertile soil. A new study from UGA aims to do just that. Image credit: The Cosmic Companion / American Gothic by Grant Wood (1930) / Mars landscape by NASA/JPL/GSFC

Martian colonies of the future will require vast quantities of food, but bringing an endless stream of foodstuffs from Earth would be costly and dangerous. The best answer to this conundrum is to grow food in greenhouse, specially constructed for that purpose. However, such a system would likely require large quantities of topsoil as a growing medium for the plants (water to supply a hydroponic system would probably be in short supply).

University of Georgia (UGA) researchers developed a series of artificial soil mixtures mimicking the topsoil of Mars. These substitute samples of Martian regolith were composed of mixtures of soil, clay, salts, and other components readily available on the surface of Mars.

Greenhouses on Mars will require large quantities of fertile soil. So, how do we make it from material which is already on the Red Planet? Image credit: NASA/Collage by The Cosmic Companion.

Laura Fackrell, UGA geochemist who led this study, appears on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion November 10, 2020

Investigators examined these the samples, exploring how fertile the ruddy surface of Mars might be.

“Simulating the mineral makeup or salt content of these Martian mixtures can tell us a lot about the potential fertility of the soil. Things like nutrients, salinity, pH are part of what make a soil fertile and understanding where Mars’ soils are at in that spectrum is key to knowing if they are viable and if not, are there feasible solutions that can be used to make them viable,” explained Laura Fackrell, UGA geology doctoral candidate and lead author on the study.

Red Acres is the Place to be…

Unlike the Martian, future farms on Mars are going to need to grow more than potatoes. Max on Mars follows the adventures of Max, the first cat on Mars. Image credit: The Cosmic Companion

Plans are underway at NASA to place the first humans on Mars sometime in the mid 2030’s, but this crew would return to Earth as soon as possible. This group of explorers would be able to bring all the food needed with them for the journey.