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Flat Crops for Mars
Abiqua Duckweed | Duckweed Acquisition | Azolla Filiculoides | Mouse Dropping Dissolution

Duckweed-covered pond
Duckweed-covered pond at The Oregon Gardens.
Bioregenerative life support on Mars will require more than your 'garden variety' crops. Some the features we should be looking for is rapid growth, low light requirements, wide pH range and high nutrition with minimal wastes. And the simpler the required infrastructure, the better.

We are examining two unique plants that seem ideally suited for this function: Duckweed, (Lemna minor) and Water Fern, (Azolla filiculoides). These plants, unlike traditional 3-D crops, grow on the surface of water, in as little as several inches of depth. Additionally, both contain more protein per dried weight than soy beans, and have been known to double their mass in 16 to 24 hours under optimal conditions.

In the case of duckweed, they will survive a wide range of pH levels, (4.5 to 9), are relatively salt tolerant, and fix nitrogen from solution, working best with ammonia, (from urine). Additionally lemna can survive in a wide range of temperatures. Azolla, while a bit more temperamental, has the advantage of being able to fix nitrogen directly from the air via symbiotic cyanobacteria.

Both of these 'flat crops' are conducive to ET Horticulture utilizing low-power LED lighting. Since they don't grow 'up' like other plants, an LED array need not be movable. Their small size also makes it easy to 'modularize' the growing process. Examples of growing techniques as well as food items produced from these plants will be examined.

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The Caves of Mars Project is funded by a NIAC Phase II Grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.
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