Comparison between intercropped tomatoes (left) and conventionally grown tomatoes. [사진=네덜란드 바헤닝언 대]
The scientific community, including international organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is actively studying “how to grow in space.” One of the key challenges will be figuring out how to harvest large crops on Mars.
Researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands said on the 1st (local time) that more crops, such as tomatoes, could be harvested on Mars soil if a method called intercropping (an agricultural method that involves planting crops different between files or files for a limited period of time). ) is applied to terrestrial time) was published in the scientific journal «PLoS One». The discovery of such agricultural techniques is expected to have an impact on terrestrial agriculture as well.
Tomatoes growing in a Mars-like environment (left) and a clump of Martian regolith where the plants take root (right). [사진=네덜란드 바헤닝언 대]
Agriculture on Mars is carried out in greenhouses
If humans want to settle and live on Mars, they must obtain nutritious food. In the film “The Martian”, which tells the story of an astronaut’s disaster on Mars, there was a scene where the main character, Mark Watney, grew potatoes. Cultivation was carried out with soil and potato seedlings on the spaceship.
However, for astronauts to settle on Mars, better agricultural methods are needed. To find out, scientists created a farm that replicated the Martian environment and studied it. It is an artificial greenhouse that adapts as much as possible to the soil and ingredients of Mars. Instead, the air quality has been adjusted to be the same as on Earth. This is because the Martian atmosphere is not suitable for growing plants. The Martian atmosphere is made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon gas and the concentration is about 100 times lighter than that of Earth. Rebecca González, a researcher at Wageningen University and co-author of the study, explained in an interview with Popular Science: “The optimal environment (for agriculture on Mars) is an artificial greenhouse where the temperature, humidity, gases, etc. are controlled.”
The soil where the plants will grow is made up of a material called “regolith”, similar to the layer that covers the rocks on the surface of Mars. Terrestrial soil and nutrients have also been added to make it suitable for cultivation. This is to increase the water retention capacity of the soil and the ability to support the roots.
Plants growing in a greenhouse (left) and plants grown in Martian regolith, normal soil, and sand (right). [사진=네덜란드 바헤닝언 대]
The plants selected were peas, carrots and tomatoes.
Gonzalez’s team decided to settle on peas, carrots and tomatoes as crops to grow using intercropping methods in the Martian environment. In a 2014 study it was shown that these three crops are plants that can grow on Martian soil. “Now that we know what crops can grow on Martian soil, we can focus on other tasks,” Gonzalez said.
He said: “The reason we chose these three crops is because they are rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and beta-carotene and have a high nutritional content,” and added: “These nutrients tend to be preferentially destroyed when producing food space”. It is explained that fresh food containing such nutrients is essential for the functioning of the colony on Mars.
Furthermore, these crops are complementary. Peas can fix nitrogen from the air as ammonia into the soil through their roots. This becomes nourishment for the field. This process is necessary for continuous intercropping. This is because it helps the growth of other surrounding plants and reduces the amount of fertilizer used during the agricultural process. Researcher González said: “The nitrogen fixing capacity of peas allows us to optimize the resources used in Martian agriculture.”
According to the research team, in addition to peas, carrots and tomatoes also help other plants to grow. Carrots induce air circulation in the soil, helping the plants that grow together absorb water and nutrients. Tomatoes also provide shade to help grow temperature-sensitive carrots and also provide support for peas, a climbing plant.
Tomatoes, carrots and peas all grew on the Martian regolith. From left, tomatoes, carrots and peas grown on Martian soil. [사진=네덜란드 바헤닝언 대]
The “red crops” on the Red Planet
All three crops grew well on Martian soil. Approximately 0.225 kg of crop could be obtained with minimal nutrients. When tomatoes were grown using intercropping, they grew better than the control group. Growth was faster and the nutrient potassium content was also higher. But not carrots and peas. In cases where intercropping methods were applied, the yield was lower than when regular cropping methods were used.
In the future, the researchers intend to study ways to increase the yield of carrots and peas through intercropping methods in addition to those grown with regular cultivation methods. Researcher González said: “It was a great achievement to find that intercropping is effective in Martian soil even if it is only one type of plant (the tomato),” adding: “Now we can conduct other follow-up studies.” .
The researchers intend to change the composition of the soil in the future. This is because the intercropping method showed higher yields than the general method when the crops were grown on sandy soil. In this case, performance improved in two of the three crops (carrots and peas). It appears this could be used on Earth, where soil is turning to sand due to climate change. There is now scope for using intercropping to solve global agricultural and environmental problems.
Researcher Rebecca González checks samples of harvested tomatoes, carrots and peas before nutritional testing. [사진=네덜란드 바헤닝언 대]
The researchers said: “Through follow-up research, we hope to be able to build a completely self-sustaining system that uses only 100% of Mars’ local resources.” If such a method were discovered, costs could be made more realistic during the process of establishing a colony on Mars and the dependence on Earth for supplies would also be reduced.
Researcher González said: “We are trying to develop a self-sustaining food production system by increasing the yield of local agriculture on Mars and strengthening soil components,” adding: “This can also be used as a solution to many problems that arise in agriculture”. on Earth.” “There is,” he said.
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