The further and the longer time people fly away from the Earth, the more they will need the ability to grow plants for food production, restore the composition of breathing air, to restore psychological comfort, say scientists at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Florida, USA. In their opinion, plant kits will be important components of any long-term space travel and stay on distant planets.
It was this thesis that became the basis for experiments on the experimental cultivation of vegetables and grass in simulated Martian soil with a low level of daylight. The results of the experiments showed that the colonists of Mars could grow their own plant foods. Scientists grew plants in a greenhouse that contained soil that mimics the soil of Mars. According to them, the soil on Mars contains about twice as much iron as the earth's soil. In addition, it does not contain living organisms found in the earth's soil that help plant life, so future farmers on Mars will need to enrich the soil with biologically rich materials such as compost waste.
The experiments used a mixture that consisted of 93% "Martian soil" and 7% organic additives. The light level corresponded to about half of the natural light on Earth. In parallel, samples of the same plants were grown in natural terrestrial conditions in order to subsequently compare the results of the experiments. The results showed that sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, dandelions, basil, garlic and hops are most suitable for growing in the conditions of Mars, and peas and spinach showed good results if the temperature in the greenhouse decreased.