When fantasy becomes reality: first seeds to be planted soon on Mars



by Staff Writers



Moscow (Voice of Russia) May 20, 2014



The first seeds germination experiment is about to be launched on Mars (Mars Plant Experiment, MPX). Greenhouse, small transparent cube, will be attached to the outer surface of the new Mars rover, that will be launched in mid-2020 and will land on the Red Planet in early 2021. Scientists hope that this study will be useful in the development of the Mars exploration program.

During the Martian summer day soil at the equator of the planet is warming up to +20 degrees Celsius. It is tempting to plant the seeds directly into the open ground, close them with the transparent shell and pour them with water from earth. But even if the plant does not freeze at night, it will still die.

The planet's atmosphere is composed of carbon dioxide with the absence of oxygen that is essential for plants to grow in the dark. In addition, its pressure is about 160 times lower than on Earth. In such a vacuum cell gas exchange is hardly possible. However, if to open the greenhouse, it is possible to "release" the earth's life outside, violating Martian environment.

Therefore, the greenhouse will be fully sealed, and the experiment will be conducted in the following way. Earth air, water and 200 seeds of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis, ?????) will be tightly sealed inside the cube. This herb is unpretentious and has long been used by scientists.

After landing the rover will start producing heat and water inside the cube. In 10-15 days small plants will appear. During this whole time the rover will remain in one place. Scientists will be taking photographs of the sprouts and compare their development with the control group on Earth.

It is interesting how the Martian gravity, light and radiation will affect the process. By the way, the radiation level at the surface of Mars turned out to be not so high, the same as on Earth orbit, where the ISS flies. Once the operators receive the necessary data, they will no longer heat the greenhouse, and the plants will inevitably freeze.

Such study should have been conducted a long time ago, says Elena Vorobyova, biologist and soil scientist from MSU:

"Such experiments are needed. We will never be able to create an absolute combination of factors in the laboratory as on the planet. If such opportunity is available, biological experiment should be used in all future missions".

Why not to take peas, instead of grass, which could be used as food by the future settlers? Elena Vorobyova explains that peas are not so resistant to unfavorable factors. However, the results of experement with grass can be applied to other types of plants as they still have much in common.

After completing the experiment with plants, the rover, "Mars 2020" will begin its primary mission - the search for traces of life, as well as the collection of soil samples for further shipment to Earth on other devices. The base platform Curiousity will be used for future "Mars 2020".

However, the inner details will be different and the full package is yet to be clarified. NASA announced a competition for the devices and has already received 58 applications from research teams from different countries. Experts will select about 10 tools out of them that will become part of the future system. The list will be known sometime in June. Russian scientists offered their checked neutron detector that is responsive to the water.

Source: Voice of Russia