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#101 2022-01-08 15:19:21

RobertDyck
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From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
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Re: Greenhouses

This thread is about greenhouses on Mars, so I'll address that. On Mars you can't just recycle. There would be no way to produce surplus food to store in case of crop failure. If a dust storm hits, you could use artificial light to keep the plants alive. But you should have enough stored food to survive the worst Mars storm without relying on greenhouses. If population grows, either by more settlers arrive or babies born, you will need more food. You can't grow the total biomass with just recycling. For this reason, I argue Mars will not rely on hydroponics alone. Hydroponics will be an important part of food production, but to increase biomass there must be an external input. That means either producing hydroponic solution from Mars dirt, or just soil agriculture. I have argued before that industry required to extract nutrients from Mars dirt would require greater effort than processing Mars dirt to arable soil. Long story short: let the plants extract nutrients out of soil themselves. Why do you want industry to do it?

So this means Mars will have a mix of hydroponics, aquaculture, and soil agriculture. All in pressurized greenhouses. Aquaponics is an integrated mix of hydroponics and aquaculture. A recent post was about a new form of dulse that can be sautéed to taste like bacon. Sauté means stir fry on high heat with little oil and either stir our shake/bounce the pan. Dulse is a type of red algae. Forms of algae that grow as a plant, not single cells, are called macroalgae. Kelp is large brown algae, so also macroalgae, but this is dulse not kelp. Sounds good to me. kbd512 called it "bacon weed". So yes, a tank to grow "bacon weed" will be included. Bacon weed as vegan bacon bits for the salad bar? Not grown on the ship, but grown on Mars and sent with the ship when it returns to Earth.

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#102 2022-07-26 04:10:49

Mars_B4_Moon
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Registered: 2006-03-23
Posts: 9,776

Re: Greenhouses

Leafood raises $6.75m to develop a vertical farming network for the Baltics
https://agfundernews.com/leafood-raises … ms-baltics

some other new mars topics
Architecture
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8804
Biodiesel from algae - Diesel trucks on Mars?
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=224
Indoor farming update
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=7099

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-07-26 04:14:21)

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