Posted on 12/05/2017 8:37:39 AM PST by BenLurkin
Wieger Wamelink, a biologist at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, is running plant growth experiments in a mixture of NASA-made Martian soil simulants — made from volcanic terrestrial rocks — and pig manure, to which he added live adult worms. University officials said in a statement that the infant worms are the first offspring of adult worms to be born in a Mars soil simulant.
Mars is not a naturally habitable environment for life as we know it, so if humans want to live there long term, Red Planet settlers will have to establish closed ecosystem models. (These are essentially large terrariums where factors like temperature and atmospheric moisture can be controlled.) According to the statement, those ecosystems will ideally utilize available waste materials, including human excrement and dead organic matter. That's where the worms come in.
Worms begin the breakdown of organic matter, which is continued by bacteria. That leads to the release into the soil of such vital plant nutrients as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, according to the statement from Wageningen University and Research.
The researchers also found that the holes that worms dig in the soil aerate the mixture and improve the soil's structure, making it easier for water to penetrate the soil and nourish plants.
Interesting. I bet broccoli would grow there. If man is going to spread to the stars, the worst food imaginable would go with him...
Who sent the fire ants???
Did you see those worms coming right out at you? Ooooo, scary!
I was hoping for a plexi-glass dome, or something like that, where you could still see the sun. Living underground in artificial light seems like.... not fun.
“The worms are the spice.”
It’s always troubled me that we apply earth “life” standards to other planets. For all we know, the Mars rover may have wiped out trillions of martian living things.
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