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In an attempt to discover whether future Mars colonists might grow their own food (think of Matt Damon in "The Martian" planting potatoes), scientists at Wageningen University in the Netherlands mixed up a batch of simulated Martian soil using volcanic cinder from Big Island. Not only did they manage to grow fresh rocket greens but:
Wamelink was using the faux Martian soil known as Mars-1A, which is created from the volcanic rocks of the Pu’u Nene volcano in Hawaii that mimics the sterilized dust that blankets Mars. He expected that adding the pig manure into this nutrient-lacking soil would help grow the greens, he explains in the press release. “However, the best surprise came at the end of the experiment when we found two young worms in the Mars soil simulant,” Wamelink says in the release.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180967386/
“Facts fall from the poetic observer as ripe seeds.” -Henry Thoreau
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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I hope they think of all the possible implications this might have for future Mars explorers...
https://youtu.be/y1g4Z_nZQms
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I am pretty sure the cinder is from here:
19°41'46.8"N 155°29'44.4"W
and was taken from deep enough so as not to be contaminated with surface materials, dried and sifted to exclude all but finer grains.
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It's extremely cold on mars and the 'soil' there (not soil - regolith) is pumped full of perchlorate salts (essentially poison for plants) not to mention the lack of any unfrozen surface water.
Wageningen is the #1 agricultural school in the world, but still this guy Wamelink completely left perchlorates out of his "simulated Martian soil" ...it'd be like studying how well fresh water fish survive in salt water - but doing the study in fresh water instead of salt water...
Kind of mind boggling really...
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I hope people realize that my post was tongue-in-cheek. It was driven in part by Mars having about a third of the gravitational force we have on Earth. It means things that
might live there have less of a problem growing larger than we're accustomed to. And then there's the scary sci-fi thing to worry about when scientists mess around with alien soil.
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a third of the gravitational force we have on Earth
Yes, I thought you were showing video of a Martian rat lungworm, after it hitched in on some Big Island soil then subsequently grew to enormous size from a combination of low gravity and low Martian atmospheric pressure. I was waiting to see the rats.
“Facts fall from the poetic observer as ripe seeds.” -Henry Thoreau
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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I believe you have underestimated the scientific community, especially those working on recreating Martian conditions in Hawaii. The worms will get large as they don't have to fight against so much gravity, but there is already a solution.
The rats we've already sent are there to scare the worms we may send in the future. Brilliant thinking in my opinion and they're so good hiding them that those looking for life on Mars have been fooled. This is all part of the plan. But this guy is onto something:
https://youtu.be/sWrboPv4OYc
ETA: PS. Worms on Mars. Only watch if you want to see what a lack of thinking will do to you.
https://youtu.be/Wo5OIxZyQD4
