Comment originally posted at NASAWATCH
“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.” -Sam Kounaves, chemist from University of Arizona
Sam’s comment resonated very strongly with me given some previous work that I worked on while a graduate student in the Ferl lab at University of Florida. Dr. Robert J. Ferl (whom, with friend and colleague Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul will be this July in his 3rd year at the HMP’s Arthur C. Clarke greenhouse) was a co-PI in one of the original (43 I think) Mars Scout submissions named AMEBA: Automated Mars Environmental and Biological Assay. Among the assays onboard the proposed probe included genetically modified Arabidopsis seeds to be grown in scooped up regolith within a special pressurized growth chamber. The point was to grow a set of these plants to find out how they’d respond to the condition of the regolith and pressurized mixtures of the Martian atmosphere.
It made the news with some fanfare and debate, especially with a title like: Jellyplants on Mars
Although many people still cannot get past the notion of purposefully bringing life to Mars, the mission’s only real problem was that it was ahead of it’s time. If we are eventually going to send humans to Mars, plants will need to come along for the ride. Dr. Kounaves made a point more salient than he perhaps realizes, however, and the results from this successful Mars Scout mission may eventually prove to be the main reasons to send little green plants in the future.