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TEXAS — Farming on Mars may sound like science fiction, but Texas A&M University researchers are studying how plants could one day grow on Martian soil with experiments sent to the International Space Station.
The research focuses on understanding how to transform Martian regolit — the loose, rocky material that covers the planet’s surface — into a medium capable of supporting plant life.
“What we’d like to do is be able to grow plants better in Mars soil,” said Julie Howe, a Texas A&M soil scientist and principal investigator on the project. “And all we need to do is improve it like soils have improved on Earth for many years.”
According to Harrison Coker, a Texas A&M doctoral researcher involved in the study, plants cannot grow in Martian soil as it currently exists.
“Unfortunately not,” Coker said. “The soils that we’ve seen on Mars are very salty. They have a lot of toxic perchlorate salts in them.”
Coker said perchlorates are highly toxic to biological systems and would need to be remediated before crops could grow. Martian soil lacks organic matter, making it more like “a pile of rocks” than the fertile soils found on Earth.
To help plants grow, researchers experimented with adding organic material and microbes to simulated Martian soil.
“To assist the plant growth, we have added in a byproduct of the beer brewing process called brewer’s spent grain,” Coker said. “And it is loaded with carbon and nitrogen and other nutrients.”
The team also added specific microbes known to work alongside plants to improve nutrient uptake and help plants respond to stress.
Caleb Shackelford, who worked on the microbiology side of the project, said the goal was to carefully control what was added to the soil.
“We’re adding in specific microbes, four to be exact, and we want to see if they can kind of help break down some of the organic matter that we added and process these nutrients to help the plants grow a little bit better,” Shackelford said.
Part of the experiment was sent to the International Space Station to observe how plants and microbes behave in microgravity and increased radiation.
“The effects of microgravity and the increased radiation will really alter the biology of any system, whether that be a microbe, a plant, or a human,” Coker said. “We can’t readily mimic those conditions on Earth.”
Microgravity changes how plants move water and nutrients, which directly affects growth. Howe said gravity on Earth plays a major role in moving water, and therefore nutrients, through a plant.
“If the water is not flowing like it’s supposed to on Earth with the gravity and the suction and the pulling and the transpiration, then the nutrients don’t move in the plant as well,” Howe said.
Shackelford compared the effects on plants to what astronauts experience in space.
“Just like astronauts, plants don’t have to work as hard in zero gravity,” he said. “They grow a little more droopy than they would on Earth.”
Researchers said the findings could have applications much closer than Mars.
“All the problems that we have on Mars, we also have on Earth in different places,” Howe said. “So we could maybe remediate those lands to be more productive for agriculture as well.”
The research could help scientists better understand how plants use water and nutrients and support breeding efforts for more resilient crops.
Coker said the experiment was successful and that the research is ongoing. He believes growing food on Mars could become a reality sooner than many expect.
“Yes, we will grow food on Mars,” Coker said. “I think we will see it within 20 years.”
Researchers say future experiments could return to space as they continue refining ways to support plant growth in extreme environments both on Earth and beyond.
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Agustin Garfias
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