The first Earthlings on Mars may not be astronauts so much as farmers.
Creating a sustainable settlement on Mars will require the growth of food. Accordingly, early Martian astronauts may have to spend much of their time farming. The task is crucial but labor-intensive.
"One of the things that every gardener on the planet will know is producing food is hard - it is a non-trivial thing," Penelope Boston, director of the Cave and Karst Studies program at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, said. "Up until several hundred years ago it occupied most of us for most of the time."
In accordance with this reality, NASA is making efforts to research farming on Mars. The agency is aiming to land humans on the planet by the mid-2030s. There are challenges, however, to farming on Mars. Mars gets about half the sunlight Earth does and even less light would be able to reach plants as it travels through a greenhouse. Since supplemental light would be required, so would additional energy.
"In terms of the systems engineering required, it's not an insignificant challenge," D. Marshall Porterfield, Life and Physical Sciences division director at NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said.
A Martian greenhouse may also have to be pressurized, posing additional challenges. Then there's the issue of radiation, given that Mars doesn't have Earth's protective atmosphere.
However, the scientists believe that farming on Mars will one day be possible.
"Every great migration in history happened because we took our agriculture with us," Ferl said. "When you learn to take your plants with you, you can not only go to visit, you can go there to stay and live."
