New Mars Forums

If we talk space horticulture, I recommend Dwarf Plum Tree developed by NASA as a source of food.

The best thing to do is to engineer a bacteria which could convert a martian CO2 into a precursor reagent for rocket fuel. I hope this is possible.

This topic is interesting. I will try to make a paper on this topic.

I agree on Mushroom but make sure, before transporting mushroom in Mars, it is not contaminated with other fungal species which could cause a disease in mushrooms, plants, and humans.

For a while, the best thing to do is to identify the microbes thrive in perchlorate contaminated soil in Earth. Next, is to screen the identified microbes based on their chemosynthetic microbial activity. There is a study about the chemosynthetic microbial activity but it was conducted in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vent side.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com … /92JB01556

The results of the study could be used as a basis for remediating the Martian soil using microbes to remove the perchlorate and used the Martian soil for agricultural purposes.

For a while, we need to study the physiological response of crop plants in perchlorate. The results will be helpful for the next study by screening a gene which is helpful to make a new breed of plants tolerate in perchlorate-rich soil. Perchlorate-tolerant crop plants could grow in Martian soil and help to scrub the Martian CO2.