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It's possible to grow potatoes hydroponically, so growing them in unprocessed Martian regolith is unlikely to be important until the number of Martians hits six
by _rpd 10y ago
It's possible to grow potatoes hydroponically, so growing them in unprocessed Martian regolith is unlikely to be important until the number of Martians hits six figures.
- EGreg 10y agoSo you're going to bring your own soil everywhere? That's the unsustainable part. Terraforming would take thousands of years.
- nikdaheratik 10y agoHydroponically means "using water as a medium", so not bringing your own soil and depending on whether there's water available on Mars. You would still need to put nutrients in the water, but it would be a path to take until you get composting working.
- _rpd 10y ago> depending on whether there's water available on Mars Actually, we've recently confirmed that there are at least five million cubic kilometers of water ice on Mars ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars#Present_water_ice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars#Present_water_ic...
- _rpd 10y agoHydroponic farming doesn't use soil ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics
- kesselvon 10y agoBring some worms, use human-derived fertilizer. Not terribly impossible.
- EGreg 10y agoAnd how does that scale for the next generations of worms? What will the worms eat?