Terraforming Mars

Terraforming (literally, “Earth-forming”) of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature and other features to be similar to those of Earth to make it more habitable.

If we ever decide to colonize Mars, it might be fairly simple to grow crops in that red soil, according to a new study. Mars’ reduced gravity could let us use less water and fertilizer than we do on Earth.

The problem is that Mars is not Earth, gravitationally speaking. Gravity affects the rate at which water and nutrients flow through soil, and plants have evolved to these constraints.

Martian gravity is about one-third as strong as Earth’s, meaning water would flow at a slower rate. It turns out that slower water transport is a good thing. Soil under Martian gravity is able to hold more water, so less of it leaches through and is lost.

This increased efficiency means you could use a whopping 90 percent less water for Martian irrigation than what you’d need on Earth. You could also use fewer fertilizers.

On the flip side, Martian soil allows for faster consumption of oxygen and dissolved organic carbon, which would result in a 10 percent increase in CO2 emissions.

So once humans start terraforming Mars, our agriculture might be more efficient, but we’ll still have to worry about those blasted greenhouse gases. Read more here or here.

Tags: Astronomy, Science