EATING ON MARS

Needless to say, an adequate supply of nutritious food will be one of the most essential requirements for any long-term presence of humans on Mars. NASA has already experimented with food production on the International Space Station, with astronauts successfully growing lettuce and other plants there using the ‘Veggie’ plant-growth system. It’s hoped that the same system can be expanded for use in future Mars missions, both en route to the Red Planet and while astronauts are living there. Besides the obvious physical importance of a food source, NASA believes that growing plants has psychological benefits too, acting as a way to relieve stress via gardening.

Food could be grown on Mars in scaled-up versions of NASA’S Veggie system