The International Potato Center (CIP) informed about the launching of a pilot project regarding ability of potato to grow on Mars. The science should help to understand whether vegetables can revive and reproduce themselves under atmospheric conditions odRed planet.
CIP has the only one aim – to discover if potatoes can grow under Mars conditions and tp help astronauts to grow the vegetables on IIS or on Mars. The research team started the series of experiments in extreme climates on Earth, in Peru because its soil is the perfect for the imitation of Mars ground, concluded Julio Valdivia-Silva of NASA.
For the purposes of The Potatoes on Mars (TPoM), Mr Valdivia-Silva identified the soil from Pampas de La Joya desert and led the effort to construct the sophisticated CubeSat. TPoM aimed at the clear understanding how this veggie survive in the extreme Martian conditions.
Growing crops on Mars (or under Martian conditions) is an important study that has a great impact on the NASA developments and daily life of astronauts on International Space Station as well.
“If the crops can tolerate the extreme conditions that we are exposing them to in our CubeSat, they have a good chance to grow on Mars. […] We want to know what the minimum conditions are that a potato needs to survive,”
Mr Valdivia-Silva said.
