• Question: in mars if we were to put plants on mars would it be possible for as to live there? if yes dont they start? thank you

    Asked by rankeelanj to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 2 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi rankeelanj,

      At the moment plants couldn’t survive on Mars as they would lack the ingredients for them to live, which are key nutrients in the ground as food, plus the carbon dioxide gas and most of all water they need to photosythsise and generate energy for themselves. Even if we resolved these problems, the sun’s energy is weaker on Mars, so it may be harder for plants used to Earth’s conditions to get enough energy to photosythsise anyways. It would be the bigggest challenge in living on mars, getting planets to grow properly! We’d porbably need special shelters to live in, filled with oxygen with plants grown inside in rooms with special lighting to help them grow.

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi rankeelanj,
      Plants need oxygen for respiration, they need liquid water to drink. The Martian atmosphere has no oxygen, and temperatures are too low, so any water would be ice. So plants would not be able to live.

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