Potatoes on Mars? Movie Magic Becomes Reality.
- Alana Fields
- Nov 10, 2016
- 2 min read
Science fiction isn't so fictional anymore
Have you seen the 2015 science fiction movie "The Martian"? In the movie actor Matt Damon, also known as Mark Watney, performs a series of different task to help him survive on Mars where he was stranded. The scene wherein he uses human waste to plant and grow potatoes, may or may not be true. Even the whole concept of the movie may is possible. “The Martian' is completely possible,” says astrobiologist Julio Valdivia-Silva. Hopefully we will get to Mars soon and be able plant vegetation. Valdivia-Silva and his team aim to replicate Mars-like conditions on Earth. This will give us a head start of going to Mars ,but the question is why do we use potatoes?
The potato and its varieties can grow in almost any condition. That means it can be grown from sea level to above sea level, resist extreme heat and cold ,and radiation. It is also pound-for-pound one of the most nutritional vegetables ever! The potatoes is perfect for astronauts in the harsh conditions of space on your body.
However some say that the harsh and wild weather of Mars might not allow potatoes to be grown there. Jan Kreuze, chief virologist at CIP, believes growing potatoes on Mars is totally possible. Another advantage of potatoes is the fact that it is a root vegetable and Mars has one-third the gravity of Earth. Floating vegetables, anyone?
If the experiment is successful ,when Valdivia-Silva and his team grow potatoes in a dome with Mars-like conditions, the potatoes with be cryogenically frozen – another sci-fi movie staple – to prevent them from germinating on the long journey to Mars. A one-way trip would take more than nine months. They could be “cultivated by robots” in a controlled dome on Mars in advance future missions manned by humans, says Valdivia-Silva.
Overall , the movie is great in stretching scientific knowledge and creating a mesmerizing picture display of space. This movie is highly recommended to watch and it will totally leave the thought in our brain of "Why Potatoes?". Just kidding, but the movie will fantasize you about space travel, life on Mars, and if the movie is possible in reality? Just know, it totally is.
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