U.S. Scientist Seeks to Grow Asparagus in Martian Soil
RICHMOND, VA - If U.S. scientist Michael Mautner has it his way, a shuttle ticket to Mars could be in your future.
Mautner, a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher, envisions a future in which scientists are able terraform foreign planets to allow for the cultivation of crops which could provide nourishment and oxygen for human space settlers.
"People have been talking about terraforming, but what I'm trying to do is give some concrete evidence that it's possible to do this, that it's possible to grow in extraterrestrial materials. What I've found is that a range of microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, and even asparagus and potato plants—can survive with the nutrients that are in extraterrestrial materials," Motherboard magazine quoted Michael Mautner as saying.
This so-called “space asparagus” is grown in soil made from ground-up meteorite samples. That they can be successfully grown in this type of soil conjures up visions of meteorite farms circling the Earth in its orbit and peanuts growing in space dust.
It is, of course, more complicated than that. A quote from Mautner on the International Business Times reveals: "The conditions outside Earth are presumably anaerobic—that's an order of magnitude harder to do. But, if we can find things that can grow in extraterrestrial materials under Earth conditions, you can start to talk about it."
Scientists at NASA have already confirmed the viability of growing most plant life in zero gravity environments and as Geek.com notes, plants growing in anaerobic conditions is not as impossible as it sounds. Now that Mautner has confirmed that it is also possible to grow crops in alien soil, humanity is a step closer to that far away dream of long-term space settlement being an actuality.
Science still has a long, long way to go in this field. That said, as long as it still costs $23,000 to transport a kilogram of food into space, we'll have to think of something new if we ever want there to be a Team Mars competing in the World Cup one day.
Michael Mautner is doing his part to point the way.
