Bitcoin Forum

Lima, Peru, December 2015: A team of world-class scientists will grow potatoes under Martian conditions in a bid to save millions of lives.
The experiment, led by the International Potato Center (CIP) and NASA, is a major step towards building a controlled dome on Mars capable of farming the invaluable crop in order to demonstrate that potatoes can be grown in the most inhospitable environments.
The goal is to raise awareness of the incredible resilience of potatoes, and fund further research and farming in devastated areas across the globe where malnutrition and poverty are rife and climbing.
“How better to learn about climate change than by growing crops on a planet that died two billion years ago?” said Joel Ranck, CIP Head of Communications. “We need people to understand that if we can grow potatoes in extreme conditions like those on Mars, we can save lives on Earth.”
Currently, famine affects 842 million people around the world. Global warming creates poor soil conditions and increases the prevalence of pests and disease which have the combined effect of limiting harvests globally but particularly in vulnerable areas where poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity already exist.


For years, Peru-based global research and development organization, CIP, has been testing the robustness of potatoes in the most unlikely places. Beyond the ability to thrive in such challenging conditions, they are also highly nutritious. An excellent source of vitamin C, iron, and zinc, they contain critical micronutrients missing in vulnerable communities globally. CIP’s scientists use research and development innovations to fight malnutrition, lift people out of poverty and increase food security around the world.
Understanding atmospheric changes on the surface of Mars will help build more dynamic and accurate simulation centers on Earth, providing further research for both CIP and NASA, who are looking to pioneer space farming for future manned missions to other planets and moons in our solar system.
“I am excited to put potatoes on Mars and even more so that we can use a simulated Martian terrain so close to the area where potatoes originated.” said Julio E. Valdivia-Silva, SETI Researcher Associate of NASA, who is leading the project’s science team.
The project is led by Will Rust, Creative Director of Memac Ogilvy Dubai. He conceived the idea while working closely with CIP to spread the word of how the potato could be the answer to global hunger. Will connected the CIP and NASA teams to initiate this project to support life on Mars and to bring direct benefit to smallholder farmers on Earth who deserve more food secure futures as well.
By using soils almost identical to those found on Mars, sourced from the Pampas de La Joya Desert in Peru, the teams will replicate Martian atmospheric conditions in a laboratory and grow potatoes. The increased levels of carbon dioxide will benefit the crop, whose yield is two to four times that of a regular grain crop under normal Earth conditions. The Martian atmosphere is near 95 per cent carbon dioxide.
“The extraordinary efforts of the team have set the bar for extraterrestrial farming. The idea of growing food for human colonies in space could be a reality very soon.” said Chris McKay, planetary scientist of the NASA Ames research centre.
Melissa Guzman, Astrobiologist at NASA Ames, stated, “The image of students building plant growth payloads and communicating virtually from labs in California, Lima, and Dubai is exciting for the future of planetary exploration and astrobiology.
“We see the science, educational, and humanitarian goals as being intertwined. In the process of working together toward establishing a community on Mars, our students will also be establishing a community on Earth,” she added.


More information can be found at : http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2015/12/22/potatoes-on-mars/

The only way that any plant life will be able to be grown anywhere is if fulvic and other humic acids are available. The only two ways that they are available are if we add them to the soil, or we ad the humic microbes to the soil. If we add humic microbes to Martian soil, nobody knows for sure what will happen. Probably they will die, and we will be forced to add the acids manually. If we simply plant natural potatoes, these potatoes already have humic microbes in them naturally. We'll see.

:)

It would be more productive if they stopped creating deserts, and started to reforest them. Years ago Shell developed a spray that stabilised the soil in barren areas, and added some nutrient to allow plant life to start to bind the surface. Unfortunately, the local natives pulled up all the emerging plant life, either for fires, or for food. I think they gave up in the end as it was costing too much.

As far as I know there are perchlorates in the martian soil what used to accumulate in vegetables and disrupts thyroid functions and causes some lung damage. So soil on Mars should be treated first to remove perchlorate but existing technologies are a bit expensive and AFAIK need a lot of energy and water. Bioremediation can work in situ with relative low costs. Settlers will need to bring only a some bacteria and supplemental chemicals (e.g. glycerine) to promote biodegradation. However this method still needs a lot of water.

Oh, I get it.  So they went to see the movie, The Martian?

I wish that human live in mars so that I can go to the space.
That would be great for the mission Mars One to grow there some potato or there food.

I stopped reading after the above dogma recitation.

Actually global warming and higher CO2 levels used to promote plant growth, as we know if we take a look at the triassic and eocene coal deposits and plant diversity.

 ;D
The idea itself is stupid.
It will cost more to move potatoes to and from mars.
The money can be used to feed people.
Stupidity at its zenith.

Yeah, I would think a global co2 increase would increase harvests, particularly in "vulnerable areas where poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity exists...."

 It's just a movie from a book considered fiction. Ya wanna figure it out?
The Irish proved you can't live on potatoes alone, you must send whiskey too.

it is not a movie. Real news Go to my link I posted man

It's nice that scientists are thinking ahead and are experimenting with growing plants in harsh conditions.
But that lead to one question - will we be able to send men to Mars during our lifetime? I think not.
Russia is testing space travel by sending man to moon in 2020 or something. But I feel like Mars is off limits to humans for now.

Right! How do they do it? when they need to get to the moon first?






 ;D

They do it through research on Mars!








 ;D

But would the money feed stupid people?

Is money stupid?

I mean, think about it.

Rotten money is just rotten money.

Rotten potatoes is VODKA.

You are stupid :) Everything technology that has been used to explore the space has in turn benefited man kind in his daily life someway or the other. If potatoes can be grown on martian conditions think how easy it would be for us to grow them in harsh condition right here on earth.
How stupid can people get?

Except for the fact that focusing on growing potatoes on Mars takes your focus off the fact that you will never eat any of those potatoes. Why not. You'll die of old age before they grow any there that can be eaten.

:)

I find it hilarious that this forum gives stupid people the title of 'Hero' .. lol hero of what? Stupidity?

According to your thought process life should cease to exist because evolution is so god damn slow. Maybe you should cease to exist as well.

Gotta Love NASA and their stupidity in wasting money. Cant even put a man on Mars yet but hey who cares lets try to grow some potatoes at the tax payers expense and see how it goes.

World hunger....Ahhh.... who cares about solving problems here on earth where we live, that's just to boring. I would rather play with a robot rover on the mars that costs 2 billion.

You guys are forgetting one important fact, that space and everything NASA and the establishments tells you about it is a LIE. Also we did didn't evolve, the folks that built the dome over our heads engineered us.

You want want to go and visit a light on ceiling and grow potatoes there.. HAHAHAHA

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Roflcopter.gif

Take it easy. Electrical usage for lighting will go up.


Congress quietly ends federal government's ban on medical marijuana (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-medical-pot-20141216-story.html)


:)

Look. It's all very simple. Neither flat earth or round earth are correct. They are both, a part of a mystifying universe. How can we tell? By answering the question of what potatoes have to do with the computers that will make it possible for us to go to and live on Mars.

So, what do potatoes and computers and going to Mars all have in common? Why, chips, of course.

 :D

The Mars mission already has this sort of thing planned. They will most probably have to send a lot of organics and start planting it inside a dome.

10 Mysteries Of The Ancient World We've Just Awesomely Solved (https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/188619-2015-12-27-10-mysteries-of-the-ancient-world-weve-just-awesomely-solved.htm)


https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/522-1227165457-a.jpg (https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/188619-2015-12-27-10-mysteries-of-the-ancient-world-weve-just-awesomely-solved.htm)




Read more at https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/12/no_author/10-mysteries-ancient-world/ (https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/12/no_author/10-mysteries-ancient-world/)


Note the part that says, "Combined, these sources provide a thorough record of Egyptian fauna and a depressing reminder that of the 37 large mammal species that once roamed the Earth, only eight remain." And somebody wants to raise potatoes on Mars, while all around us the creation is failing and falling away, right out from under us? How utterly ridiculous and immature.


:)

Lol... Potatoes on Mars, what next? Tomatoes on Mercury?  ::) ::)

That just shows you how our technology keeps growing, we are the tech generation!

Why not? Freeze dried on one side, and fried to a crisp on the other.

 :D

By news... Martian was right!

In last year's Hollywood film The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, is left for dead by his crew after being caught in a sandstorm on Mars. In order to survive, Watney plants some potatoes that NASA had sent up with his crew. In this case, science fiction isn't far from reality.

America's space agency, NASA, and the Peruvian International Potato Center (CIP), are carrying out joint experiments to test the possibility of growing the Peruvian tuber in Martian soil, according to a new report by BBC World.

There are more than 4,000 types of potatoes — and most of them are found in South America. More than 300 million metric tons of potatoes are grown each year for 1.4 billion people to eat. In Peru, the CIP is tasked with choosing which kind of potato is best suited to the conditions on Mars.

Scientists have already started to conduct experiments with potatoes, subjecting the tuber to conditions similar to those found on Mars, with soil from the Pampas de la Joya desert in Arequipa, in southern Peru:

“They are volcanic soils with no life forms at all, just as on Mars,” pointed out Joel Ranck, CIP communications officer. "Peru is poised again to play a role in the potato's fate, hosting a project to take the tuber to the space."

During the first stage, nine varieties of potato have been chosen and will be grown in the desert soil, and the Martian atmosphere will be simulated in a controlled environment to see how it affects the tuber's growth. This in order to learn how viable farming could be on the Red Planet.

The Arequipan Pampas de La Joya desert is considered key, as it's presumed to be similar to Mars. Already in 2009, astronauts from the International Space Station began to develop an experiment to grow seeds of Peruvian potatoes on Mars. The idea was to try to grow five varieties of potato — out of the more than 3,000 found in Peru — to determine “resistance and food versatility,” aiming to demonstrate the possibility of growing food on Mars.

I am sure that the experimenters know what they are doing. But let me simply say one thing. plants will barely grow at all without humic acids and the humic microbes that make the acids. If they grow at all, they will grow in mutated form, will not mature, and will die prematurely. To match the Martian surface, tests must be done in soil without humic microbes and acid, if they are to simulate Martian soil.

Additionally, if humic microbes are added to Martian soil, the soil will need to be protected from space radiation. Humic microbes will be killed by radiation from space if simply added to the topsoil on Mars. No atmosphere to protect them.

:)

this is so stupid .. feed the poor on earth rather than grow potatoes on mars..

Isn't it that Earth plants require Earth components to survive? If they were not able to meet them in Mars, I seriously doubt this would last long.