
Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant - scadge
https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/Earthworms-can-reproduce-in-Mars-soil-simulant.htm
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foxhop
It's crazy how scientists are researching worms for Mars and yet our
scientists in agriculture actively preach practices that compact soil and kill
soil biology. Monsanto chemicals and John Deeres tractors are ruining systems
that literally self renew.

Maybe we should try to work with earth's nature here before trying to emulate
it on another planet?

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Houshalter
Do you have a source for any of this?

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foxhop
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1aR5OLgcc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1aR5OLgcc0)

For more on this topic, please research:

\- no-till farming

\- polycultures (no monocultures)

\- cover crops (or cover soil when not in use)

\- reduce or eliminate chemical inputs

\- permaculture

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Houshalter
Most farming is no-till now, because of the "chemicals" you seem to hate.

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foxhop
That is false. Most farm land is tilled, plowed, driven on by machines for
seeding and harvest, and disturbed regardless of the chemical inputs.

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Houshalter
I can only speak for my region. But plowing and cultivating has become a lot
less common over the past few decades. Herbicides kill the weeds effectively
which reduce the need for it.

I think you don't know what you are talking about.

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robinduckett
But can they reproduce in the soil at the same range of air pressure found in
habitats, with the same gravity / gas mixture? Can they still reproduce after
50 years?

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azernik
Need to run that experiment on the ISS in a Mars-gravity centrifuge.

Despite a lifetime of 6-9 years, though, their generation length is only a few
months; if they reproduce in that radiation environment for a year or three
and there aren't serious mutations, they'll probably be okay in the long run.

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pen2l
And in a few generations probably evolve to build further resiliency for the
subject radiation/gravity/air pressure conditions.

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zokier
I'll paste in my previous comment about this. The tone is bit harsh, the
context was more hypeful

> Ugh. I feel like Wamelinks researchs importance is way overblown.
> Hydroponics has shown that you need no soil to grow plants, so is it really
> surprising that Mars soil simultant that has been specifically treated to be
> friendly can sustain plants and worms? Especially when the simultant might
> not have been very accurate chemically to begin with. Personally I think the
> first generations will be using heavily hydroponics, and during that period
> can do actual in-situ experiments that are far more informative than
> anything we can do here on earth.

> Direct quote from their 2014 paper (I couldn't find the earthworm paper,
> links would be appreciated):

> > Our results show that it is in principle possible to grow plants in
> Martian and Lunar soil simulants although there was only one plant that
> formed a flower butt on moon soil simulant. _Whether this extends to growing
> plants on Mars or the moon in full soils themselves remains an open
> question. More research is needed about the representativeness of the
> simulants_ , water holding capacity and other physical characteristics of
> the soils, whether our results extend to growing plants in full soil, the
> availability of reactive nitrogen on Mars and moon combined with the
> addition of nutrients and creating a balanced nutrient availability, and the
> influence of gravity, light and other conditions.

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PinkMilkshake
It’s not just about food though, is it? Being able to grow plants on mars is,
I would have thought, an important step for terraforming.

Also, if we work out which plants _kinda_ work, we might be able to isolate
the genes that improve survival and add them to other plants.

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NegativeLatency
If you find this interesting you might appreciate the Red Mars series by Kim
Stanley Robinson.

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meri_dian
If we are able to conclusively determine that Mars is no longer host to life,
should we try to seed the planet with carbon dioxide & methane producing
organisms in order to create an atmosphere?

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mratzloff
That wouldn't do much good unless we can re-establish the magnetosphere.

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throwawayaway12
I think it is still an open (and hotly debated) question on if planets need
magnetospheres to retain an atmosphere.

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toomuchtodo
A magnetosphere is required to shield from charges particles and other harmful
radiation.

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dweekly
Of course it would turn out that the first thing we could grow and eat on Mars
would be rocket.

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JumpCrisscross
For the confused, rocket is called arugula in American English [1].

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruca_sativa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruca_sativa)

~~~
NegativeLatency
And sometimes spelled as roquette

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simulate
Did they include perchlorates in the simulated Martian soil? It seems unlikely
that they did but I might be mistaken.

The big issue with either growing plants on Mars or simply being exposed to
Martian dust is perchlorates in the soil: [https://www.space.com/21554-mars-
toxic-perchlorate-chemicals...](https://www.space.com/21554-mars-toxic-
perchlorate-chemicals.html)

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EGreg
So it might work! Can we boostrap a real, nutrient-rich regolith and ecosystem
from scratch? That would be some amazing terraforming - and some major value
for mankind.

And here I thought The Martian's most unrealistic part was growing the
potatoes.

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notthemessiah
The most unrealistic part was the dust storm in the beginning. Not enough air
pressure on Mars for wind to do much.

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adrianN
Somebody did the math: [https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9301/could-
you-fee...](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9301/could-you-feel-the-
wind-on-mars)

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cjhanks
I feel like sending earth worms to Mars is like sending pigs to South America.
Perhaps there is nothing living there... I don't know. But do we need to have
such an imperialist attitude with planets too?

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randyrand
Imperialism is not a bad thing.

Successful species spread and thrive. Failed species are extinct -- and we
will be too if we don't get off this rock.

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cjhanks
That sounds like the mantra of an anthropomorphised virus. But my down-votes
seem to suggest it's popular opinion here.

I'm just saying there was more to learn from America than "potatoes and corn
are good".

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stanfordkid
Some things live in a realm "beyond good and evil" and are just pure creation.
I think Mars terraforming is one of those things. We are creating an entirely
new system within which new goods and new evils might subsist. The entire
notion of "Imperialism is bad" is a banal historical platitude in this
context.

