NASA May Bring Greenhouse to Mars With Next Rover in 2021

[jakeXT]

Plant life may touch down on Mars in 2021.

Researchers have proposed putting a plant-growth experiment on NASA's next Mars rover, which is scheduled to launch in mid-2020 and land on the Red Planet in early 2021. The investigation, known as the Mars Plant Experiment (MPX), could help lay the foundation for the colonization of Mars, its designers say.

...

MPX would employ a clear "CubeSat" box — the case for a cheap and tiny satellite — which would be affixed to the exterior of the 2020 rover. This box would hold Earth air and about 200 seeds of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant that's commonly used in scientific research.

The seeds would receive water when the rover touched down on Mars, and would then be allowed to grow for two weeks or so.

"In 15 days, we'll have a little greenhouse on Mars," Smith said.

MPX would provide an organism-level test of the Mars environment, showing how Earth life deals with the Red Planet's relatively high radiation levels and low gravity, which is about 40 percent as strong as that of Earth, she added.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-may-bring-greenhouse-mars-next-rover-2021-n99696

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Awesome!!!

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. so there WILL be life on Mars! Kewl beans...

[Warpy]

3. They're going to find out how quickly plants die there, I'm afraid

The atmosphere there is so thin the cells will rupture. They need to start out with the bugs that survived intact on the Moon for a couple of years and then work up.

[jakeXT]

4. they want to use earth air

Rather, the experiment would be entirely self-contained, eliminating the chance that Earth life could escape and perhaps get a foothold on Mars.

MPX would employ a clear "CubeSat" box — the case for a cheap and tiny satellite — which would be affixed to the exterior of the 2020 rover. This box would hold Earth air and about 200 seeds of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant that's commonly used in scientific research.

[Warpy]

5. I see, sort of. They'll see how plants do in the lower gravity, but that's about all.

[RGinNJ]

6. Be interested to see how long a living thing can survive with

no magnetic field to keep the Sun's radiation away.