Plant Growth and Ecosystem Development on a Terraformed Mars: With the Use of the International Space Station to Investigate Plant Growth in Martian Gravity 1999-01-2206
A fundamental question for Astrobiology is the question of the ability of life to expand beyond its planet of origin. Introducing life on Mars is the likely near-term step in addressing this question. Making Mars more suitable for life (terraforming) involves altering the martian environment so that microorganisms and plants from Earth could survive there. We define two principal goals: 1) determine the minimal change in pressure, gas composition, and temperature on Mars that would allow for growth of plants from arctic and alpine biomes. 2) Determine the characteristics of plant growth at 0.38 g. This paper reviews martian environmental factors in the context of plant survival, and discusses the use of Space Station as a hypogravity testbed.
Citation: Hidalgo, L., McKay, C., Bubenheim, D., and Cockell, C., "Plant Growth and Ecosystem Development on a Terraformed Mars: With the Use of the International Space Station to Investigate Plant Growth in Martian Gravity," SAE Technical Paper 1999-01-2206, 1999, https://doi.org/10.4271/1999-01-2206. Download Citation
Author(s):
Loretta Y. Hidalgo, Christopher P. McKay, David L. Bubenheim, Charles S. Cockell
Affiliated:
SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Pages: 10
Event:
International Conference On Environmental Systems
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Related Topics:
Spacecraft
Pressure
Gases
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