Potatoes on Mars: Peruvian team tests if vegetable will grow on Red Planet

[Judi Lynn]

Potatoes on Mars: Peruvian team tests if vegetable will grow on Red Planet

The Nasa project could be applied both to an attempt to colonise Mars and, on Earth, to farming in tropical areas hit by rising temperatures and drought

Simeon Tegel Lima |
@SimeonTegel |
22 hours ago


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The Atacama desert is the driest place on Earth. Its soil, which lacks basic nutrients and is devoid of organic matter, will be used to grow the trial tubers EPA
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Can Peruvian potatoes grow on Mars? Nasa thinks so.

In a case of science seemingly imitating Hollywood, the space agency has launched a project to see whether potatoes could grow on the Red Planet, one day allowing a human colony.

In a plot that could have been borrowed from the Matt Damon blockbuster The Martian, the US space agency and the International Potato Centre (CIP), a non-profit organisation, will attempt to exploit the expertise available in Peru, home of world’s favourite tuber, a nation of more than 4,000 varieties.

Initially, the CIP will attempt to grow the potatoes in its laboratories in Lima, in conditions simulating those on Mars, including extreme ultraviolet radiation and drastic temperature variations. It will use soil from Pampas de la Joya, an area in the northern Atacama Desert, where growing conditions are close to those on Mars.

The Atacama is the driest place on Earth with less than 1mm of average annual rainfall, while Pampas de le Joya’s unusual geology means that it lacks basic nutrients and is devoid of organic matter. If the lab tests are successful, researchers will then plant potatoes in the desert itself.

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/potatoes-on-mars-peruvian-team-tests-if-vegetable-will-grow-on-red-planet-a6826001.html

Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122844968

[Cleita]

1. I think they are mistaken about the soil being devoid of nutrients.

As a former resident of the Atacama desert, one of the minerals mined there is nitrate, which is used in gun powder, but is also made into fertilizer. On the rare times it rains there, wild flowers bloom on the pampa. On the various oasis villages in the desert where fresh water, melted snow from the Andes is available, native people farm corn, alfalfa for livestock, potatoes and other crops.

Anecdotally I have witnessed cottage gardens coaxed from the soil by the mere expedient of seeding and watering by homesick ex patriots from England.

Just my opinion.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I thought of you when I saw this article!

Remembered your comments about being able to see innumerable stars so clearly at night. Also that you knew quite a few people there, some of them connected to a corporation in the area, and that there actually is water in some spots.

Have seen photos of the incomparable flowers which spring up after a rare rain, when things work out right.

It would be wild seeing an English garden planted in the Atacama. Unforgettable.

It would have made sense if the people from NASA had made the effort to delve into what really can happen there over time by interviewing residents.