German Scientists Grow Salad In Antarctica For Future Mars Colony
If you're heading off to Mars in a hundred years, you may not need to pack a lunch. Scientists with Germany's DLR Institute of Space Systems successfully grew an impressive harvest of fresh vegetables without any soil or sunlight. The salad greens were grown in Antarctica under harsh weather conditions, mimicking the uninhabitable environment astronauts might encounter on the moon or Mars.
The nutritious crop included 8 pounds of greens, 70 radishes, and 18 cucumbers — enough to craft more than a few small salads tossed in a healthy, delicious dressing.
New day, fresh harvest. The first cucumbers #madeinantarctica from our #space greenhouse Eden-ISS! 😋 🤤 🥒🥒 pic.twitter.com/ptLLDam1ra
— DLR – English (@DLR_en) March 30, 2018
According to testers, the dish "tasted as if we had harvested it fresh in the garden," despite the difficult environment in which it was grown. The vegetables managed to survive harsh conditions, with the weather outside clocking in at below minus-20 degrees Celsius (minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit).
"After sowing the seeds in mid-February, I had to deal with some unexpected problems, such as minor system failures and the strongest storm in more than a year," engineer Paul Zabel told Deutsche Welle.
But despite the trying ecosystem, the plants survived by way of a high-tech growing system, using artificial light and carefully regulated feeding. By May 2018, the scientists hope to harvest around 10 pounds of fruits and vegetables every week.
The German scientists believe their methods could also be useful for growing food in harsh weather conditions here on Earth. That would only, of course, apply while humans still live on Earth. In a thousand years, we could all be munching on delicious salads, settled cozy on Mars.