Rice On Mars: Red Planet’s First Colonists Could Grow Genetically Modified Crops, Say Scientists - Forbes

Forget the potatoes-and-poo recipe suggested by Andy Weir’s 2011 book The Martian—new research suggests that it’s genetically modified rice that could one day feed the first Mars colonists.

Mars is at least a seven months journey from Earth across 300 million miles/480 million kilometers. Worse, that journey can only be taken once every two-or-so years when the planets are at their closest. So the first humans living on Mars will need to grow their own food.

Unfortunately, the red planet’s soil contains perchlorate salts, which are considered to be toxic for plants.

However, new research presented at the 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference suggests that genetically modified rice could grow in the Martian regolith.

Scientists from the University of Arkansas were able to simulate Martian soil using basaltic rich soil mined from the Mojave Desert developed by scientists from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Three varieties of rice were grown in the soil—one wild and two gene-edited—with the latter better adapted to drought, a lack of sugar and salty conditions. They also grew the same three strains in a potting soil and a mix of the the two.

They discovered that genetically modified rice grows well in simulated Martian soil if a quarter of it is potting soil. They also found that three grams of perchlorate per kilogram of soil is the limit that any strain of rice can grow in.

That could make these experiments useful in regions on Earth where soil has a high salt content. “We could use Earth as a terrestrial analog before the seeds ever get sent to Mars,” said second author Abhilash Ramachandran, a post-doctoral fellow at the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences.

The next step is to experiment with a newly developed Martian soil simulant, and also with other strains of rice. After that the team want to develop a Mars simulation chamber that replicates the temperature and atmosphere of the red planet.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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2023-04-29 23:30:00Z
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