Lyra Martin Science 08.18.2022 02:Aug AM EDT

High School Project Finds Two Ways to Grow Plants on Mars

On Mars, the soil and water are often too hostile for plants to thrive. However, a sophomore at Ames High School who was motivated by a 2015 motion picture discovered two methods of growing plants on the planet.

A High Schooler's Study Discovered Ways to Cultivate Plants on Mars

Alfalfa plants and photosynthetic bacteria may help make Martian soil and water suitable for farming, according to research conducted by a previous high school sophomore. Typically, the soil and water on Mars are too harsh for crops to flourish.

Researchers examined ways to increase Martian water and soil in a new study. Due to past volcanism on Mars, the researchers used volcanic stones from hardware and fireplace shops for their studies.

Pooja Kasiviswanathan started the project as an Ames High School student. According to Kasiviswanathan, "As a child, I constantly wondered if foreign habitats could support life, which led to my interest in astrobiology."

Researchers found that alfalfa, used as cow feed, thrived on nutrient-poor soil. The alfalfa powder developed by the researchers might be used to grow turnips, radishes, and lettuce in arid soil similar to Mars.

It amazed Elizabeth Swanner of Iowa State University in Ames that alfalfa thrived on Martian regolith replicas without adding nutrients. Regolith may be fertilized with alfalfa to encourage the development of food plants.

In the 2015 movie "The Martian," which served as inspiration for the study, one of the major challenges was growing vegetables on Mars. Kasiviswanathan remarked, "This video made me curious about how we may grow plants in Martian circumstances for future human trips."

The scientists also found a photosynthetic marine bacteria strain called Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 was successful in eliminating salt from brackish water like that of Mars. Researchers could improve desalination by filtering water through Mars' volcanic rocks.

NASA's InSight Mission Detected No Water or Ice on Mars

The likelihood of discovering Martian life near NASA's InSight lander is small. In the almost 1,000 feet (300 meters) below the lander, the InSight mission found little to no evidence of water or ice, according to recent research.

The vicinity of the landing zone is loose and porous, with few ice grains in between crustal fractures, according to investigations. The choice of this equatorial location for the landing zone was explicitly made because of its flat surface and significant marsquake probability.

Vashan Wright, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, is the study's primary author. These findings, he said, do not rule out the possibility that there are ice grains or microscopic ice balls that are not binding other minerals together.

The Mars Exploration Rover InSight is situated on Elysium Planitia, where the mission landed in 2018 to search for marsquakes or tremors brought either by internal activity or meteorites striking the Martian surface.

Under InSight, sedimentary rock and lava flows may be present, according to surface scans, but the porosity and mineral composition of the models being used by the researchers are not obvious.

The most recent information from InSight indicates that uncemented material beneath the lander substantially fills in one of the gaps being supplied by the mission. There is not much water there, but further information is required.