Lately, we have been hearing a lot of news on the life on MARS. A movie, The Martian was also released last year on the existence of life in the Red Planet. In the movie you would see Matt Damon as botanist Mark Watney growing potatoes in ‘The Martian’.
More than 10 different crops have successfully been raised in simulated Martian dirt by a group of scientists in Netherlands. One of the crops include potatoes as well, just like in the movie. An organic fertilizer was mixed with the extraterrestrial “earth”. In the movie, the fictional Mark Watney played by Damon used human faeces to give his potatoes a start.
This study will certainly help those who are passionate on the MARS mission. Dr Wieger Wamelink, the ecologist at Wageningen University said, “It’s important to test as many crops as possible, to make sure that settlers on Mars have access to a broad variety of different food sources.”
However, the crops are said to be contaminated with a lot of dangerous elements. Dr Wamelink said, “We have to make sure that it is safe to eat them because of the heavy metals that are present in the soils.”
The Martian surface contains Arsenic, Mercury, Lead, Copper, Cadmium in addition to the high levels of oxidized iron.