Mankind has already set foot on the moon, and plans to fly to mars have been under way for many years。
There is no doubt that human beings have acquired such technological capability by sending them to mars。
But the ultimate goal of the mars project, the interstellar exploration, is not just to send astronauts on this journey. - the human ambition is to wait for the planet to be able to afford it and to make other planets a new home for humanity。
So more of the problem with these plans is: if one day humans truly migrate to mars or other planets, how do they survive
So-called “food insecurity” — sufficient food production is a prerequisite for survival。
Many of the studies in the united states' mars program are exploring the question of food and water for razing。
The earth's surface is fertile ground, and millions of years of evolution have allowed flora and fauna and the earth's soil to live in harmony。
However, there is no wind or water on the moon, so the surface does not form a “soil” and only solid rock fragments. Mars is better, with wind and water, so rock tatters become thin, like clay on earth。
Moon surface
It's too different from the earth on earth. Can you grow plants up there
Researchers at the university of wagningen and the research centre in the netherlands have explored the transformation of such soils to grow beans。
In the mars programme, the recycling of urine is an important issue — the recycling of urine into drinking water is technically mature. Ammonium phosphate is present in the residue after urine recovery. In nature, ammonium phosphate is abundant in bird dung, so it is also called bird dung. Before the mid-nineteenth century, bird dung was the most important source of manure for humanity, and the united states even passed legislation encouraging people to look for bird dung on unreached islands。
At the research centre, 60 flower basins were prepared to grow bean horns with conventional bouquet soil, simulated moon soil and simulated martian soil. Half of the lunar and martian soil contains bird dung collected from wastewater purification equipment, adding approximately 1. 5 per cent。
These bean horns are planted in greenhouses and water is maintained. At first, the seedlings in the martian soil grew better than those in the moon soil, but not at a later stage. Finally, the lunar soil with bird dung and the regular bouquets were successfully blooming beans。
In previous studies, it was difficult to grow plants in the soil of the moon — hard-core rock crumbs, which were so infertile. The harvest from the soil of the moon is less than half the earth's soil. In this experiment, the soybean horns of pure moon soil were also very poor, but those with bird dung were very good, and even felt above the earth's bouquet。
This is an interesting study. Of course, it's a long way from actually being able to plant food on the moon or mars. Its significance is that it provides some direction for the cultivation of soil from other planets and for the recycling of excreta. This study only explores the effects of urine, so what's the impact of shit? How does bacteria in faeces work with the transformation of organic matter and soil modification
There are more and bigger issues to explore。
The exploration of these issues is not only meaningful for humans living on mars or migrating to other planets. Their findings will greatly enrich our knowledge of waste disposal and food production — knowledge that may also be applied to productive life on earth。
