Fruits and veggies on Mars? US student proves it can be possible

Scientists worried over Earth’s extinction are scrambling ways to seek for alternative sources of food and vegetation. One American student invented a ‘space gardening’ method that can cultivate fresh harvest in space or perhaps in Mars.

Heather Hava, an aerospace engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Boulder, invented two robots that can grow fruits and vegetables in extreme places such as space. Her leading-edge method of space gardening won $15,000 in the Lemelson-Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘Eat It!’ graduate prize in food technology.

The first robot, named Smart Pot (SPOT), can plant strawberries, tomatoes, herbs, and leafy vegetables in a hydroponic garden, a soil-less plantation method where crops are placed in enriched water and are sheathed inside a minuscule chamber. The leftover water is deposited in a reservoir.

The second robot, named Robotic Farmer (ROGR), would assist SPOT in its daily duties in the hydroponic garden, according to a report at Tech Insider.io.

Enriched water is dropped in the plant’s roots, and the plant will grow normally. Also, plant bed sensors monitor the water temperature, pH level, humidity, in the crops’ growing cycle. The garden is connected to AgQ, a software app that screens data and makes it accessible to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employees and astronauts.

Currently, astronauts can only consume pre-packaged space food, such as freeze-dried or dehydrated foods sealed in packages. They can have fresh produce shipped to them, but thanks to Hava’s invention, astronauts can plant fresh vegetables themselves.

Hava yearns to bring the technology to Mars Desert Research Station, a Utah-based research agency that develops technology on living on Mars. Gianna Francesca Catolico,INQUIRER.net