Live on Mars is getting closer as scientists, like astronaut and botanist Mark Watney in The Martian, are figuring out how to grow vegetables in the arid, alien soil of Mars. Scientists from Wageningen University in The Netherlands say they have had surprising success with crops grown in a simulated Martian soil created by NASA. In their first experiments, which were published in 2014, plants grown in Mars and moon soil barely sprouted and died quickly, if they managed to germinate at all. But now, by mixing in some of the organic materials that give Earth’s dirt its edge, they’ve managed to make 10 species including peas and tomatoes yield produce.
Dutch Scientists grow peas and tomatoes in ‘Martian’ soil
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