Mars Soil Appears To Be Able To Sustain Life

beckerist writes "Scientists working on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which has already found ice on the planet, said preliminary analysis by the lander's instruments on a sample of soil scooped up by the spacecraft's robotic arm had shown it to be much more alkaline than expected. Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists: 'It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us.'"

Growing Asparagus on Mars...

It would probably lead to a very smelly planet.

Re:Growing Asparagus on Mars...

What a way to motivate new colonists...

Join the exciting new Mars colony! Wide open spaces! All-you-can-eat asparagus!

Re:Growing Asparagus on Mars...

Only on Slashdot would someone spell "oxygen" wrong and yet correctly spell "aphrodisiac"...

FTA:

You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us.

And I thought I didn't get out much.

Re:FTA:

growing weed should be more interesting, over there it's nobody's jurisdiction :)

not that interesting

Can you imagine? You get the munchies, and all there is to eat is asparagus? Ugh.

Re:FTA:

They went to great lengths to avoid contamination of the Mars environment with life from Earth. One of their objectives is to see if there's life on Mars, remember?

Re:FTA:

they go to great lengths NOT to bring life to mars. Read up on "bio-barrier". If the spacecraft get contaminated during construction or prep they have to re-sterilize it. They want to find life, not spread it.

If you accidentally bring life to Mars, that makes it about impossible to discover it and know for sure it's Martian life and not something you brought, or that mutated from something you brought.

Although I agree that if we determine there is NO life on mars, I say our next probe is sent with a well-planned variety of "colonizer" lifeforms to begin teraforming of the planet so it's at least borderline useful by the time we can send people out there.

Re:FTA:

Although I agree that if we determine there is NO life on mars, I say our next probe is sent with a well-planned variety of "colonizer" lifeforms to begin teraforming of the planet so it's at least borderline useful by the time we can send people out there.

Wow, I hope we send people there much sooner than that. I seem to recall that it would take many, many centuries to make Mars borderline useful.

That is, unless somebody's done us the favor of leaving a giant insta-terraforming machine lying around there, in which case we just need to send Ahhnold to staht de reactor.

Re:FTA:

Well, while the soil may very well be conducive to growing asparagus, the temperatures most certainly are not. Asparagus is fairly hardy (depending on the cultivar), relatively speaking; but surviving -70C (or even -70F) is too much to ask of the plant.

I must say this is the first time my knowledge of vegetable gardening has ever come in handy on Slashdot!

Re:FTA:

Well, that's easy, Monsanto has a patent on growing produce in off-world ecologies. Clearly NASA does not have the budget to pay Monsanto royalties

Re:FTA:

I bet they don't read Slashdot though.

Of course not. Slashdot is more interesting than asparagus, though sometimes not as intelligent.

Martian Red

Martian pot is what I'm waiting for. I'm sure it would be outta this world.

Re:Martian Red

Given the gravity differences, an ounce of of pot on Mars would get you *much* higher.

NEWS FLASH!

You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ...

I can see the headlines now in all the papers, when this quote goes mainstream;

TOP SCIENTIST CLAIM MARS SOIL SUPPORTS ASPARAGUS LIKE LIFE FORMS!

Asparagus on Mars

Just more evidence that Big Asparagus has co-opted our national science agenda.

The Soil, Maybe, But What About the Environment?

Has everyone forgotten Mars has no ozone layer? The soil may contain the necessary minerals and other nutrients, but it's baked under UV rays and (last I heard) full of peroxides and other unfriendly chemicals as a result. Starting with plants is putting the cart before the horse; we should be thinking about extremophiles if we're serious about this. And would it be ethical?

Re:The Soil, Maybe, But What About the Environment

The ethical concerns have already been addressed. If the martians don't like our plans, they can file a formal complaint. The plans will be properly displayed for a sufficient duration in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.

Life on Mars

Fry: Back in the 20th century we had no idea there was a university on Mars.

Farnsworth: Well, in those days, Mars was just a dreary uninhabitable wasteland. Much like Utah. But unlike Utah, it was eventually made livable.

Re:send seeds

The problem with having the totality of human knowledge at one's fingertips is the necessary base knowledge. I know nothing about plant life, beyond that I need to mow the lawn every so often. I wouldn't have known to look up lichen as a possible candidate for growing on Mars. I thought lichen was like moss, and needed darkness and damp conditions.

Re:AP News Article

Wait... pH over 7 means a solution is "salty"? Salts are electrically neutral; surely they meant "alkaline" or "basic".

Re:AP News Article

umm...pH over 7 means alkaline, not salty.

Re:AP News Article

"It's typical of the soil here on Earth minus the organics," Kounaves said during a teleconference from Tucson, Ariz. ...

i.e. We're still missing the magic ingredient: Nitrogen. Getting a sufficient quantity of nitrates to Mars might end up being the biggest problem with colonization efforts in the future. We obviously have water. CO2 can be reprocessed into O2.

The soil is not toxic. Now all we need is Nitrogen and a good method of bootstraping industrial production on Mars. (Shipping heavier technology would be impractical.)

Re:Life?

as opposed to coming from Earth as contamination during any of our Mars missions?

Great pains are taken to make sure any and all things landing on Mars from Earth are completely serile. The concern you mention was a pretty big one - when scientists first figured out how to solve it decades ago.

Re:Only a 'might'?

Well, the *soil* might be capable of supporting Asparagus, but the seeds might not like the temperature, atmosphere, or ambient radiation.