NASA is auditioning to plant potatoes on Mars

Studies are being made in the Atacama Desert in Peru



Lost on Mars and its protagonist, astronaut Mark Watney, had already warned us: planting potatoes on the red planet is something to be explored. It seems that NASA agrees. The new US space agency's project is just bury 100 different types of potatoes in the Atacama desert, so that one day we can have a Martian garden.

The project is a partnership between NASA and the International Center of the Potato (CIP) - an organization located in Lima, Peru, which aims to catalog and study the food, aiming to use it to reduce hunger in the world. Among the more than 4,500 types of potatoes registered by the CIP, 100 were selected, 40 of them native to the Andes, where it is believed that the first seedlings were planted food, 2,500 years ago.

The experiments take place in a desert region called the Pampas La Joya, and the place was not chosen for nothing "Mars and Joya have very low levels of organic microorganisms and materials, as have high amounts of oxidizing chemicals. They are very similar environments," says Julio Valdivia-Silva, space biologist at the National Institute for Research and Training in Peru Telecommunications to the magazine Scientific American.

The experiment will be divided into three stages. In the first, which is already taking place since January, scientists have tried to plant in the desert the genetically modified potatoes to be resistant to viruses, survive the extremely dry conditions and even flooding. There are more than 90 kilograms planted. In the second stage, the food will be frozen - the idea is to see if the potatoes would be able to resist interplanetary travel (which can last 9 months). In the third stage will be tested planting within CubeSets, small satellites that can store objects inside.

The plan is that NASA build a study center in Peruvian territory. "The image of students constructing gardens and communicating virtually with laboratories in California, Lima and Dubai is extremely encouraging for the future of planetary exploration and astrobiology. The project of establishing communities on Mars, will make establishing communities on Earth," he says Melissa Guzman, astrobiolóloga NASA. "The extraordinary efforts of those involved raised the level of discussions about aliens plantations. The idea of ​​producing food for human colonies in space can be reality soon," says Chris McKay, a biologist at the space agency.