Why don't we try to grow plants of Mars and start an oxygen atmosphere?

Question

I was reading how they used Martian soil from meteriotes to grow potatoes and asparagas. They grew fine. I know that there is no water on Mars, but what about the ice caps?

Answer 1

Mars is considered by many to be the most likely candidate for terraformation. Much study has gone into the possibility of heating the planet and altering its atmosphere, and NASA has even hosted debates on the subject. However, a host of obstacles stand between the present and an active terraforming effort on Mars or any other world. The long timescales and practicality of terraforming are the subject of debate. Other unanswered questions relate to the ethics, logistics, economics, politics and methodology of altering the environment of an extraterrestrial world.

There is some scientific debate over whether it would even be possible to terraform Mars, or how stable its climate would be once terraformed. It is possible that over geological timescales - tens or hundreds of millions of years—Mars could lose its water and atmosphere again, possibly to the same processes that reduced it to its current state. Indeed, it is thought that Mars once did have a relatively Earthlike environment early in its history, with a thicker atmosphere and abundant water that was lost over the course of hundreds of millions of years. The exact mechanism of this loss is still unclear, though several mechanisms have been proposed. The lack of a magnetosphere surrounding Mars may have allowed the solar wind to erode the atmosphere, the relatively low gravity of Mars helping to accelerate the loss of lighter gases to space. The lack of plate tectonics on Mars is another possibility, preventing the recycling of gases locked up in sediments back into the atmosphere. The lack of magnetic field and geologic activity may both be a result of Mars's smaller size allowing its interior to cool more quickly than Earth's, though the details of such processes are still unrealised. However, none of these processes are likely to be significant over the typical lifespan of most animal species, or even on the timescale of human civilization, and the slow loss of atmosphere could possibly be counteracted with ongoing low-level artificial terraforming activities. Terraforming Mars would entail two major interlaced changes: building the atmosphere and heating it. Since a thicker atmosphere of carbon dioxide and/or some other greenhouse gases would trap incoming solar radiation and the raised temperature would put the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere the two processes would augment one another.

Answer 2

Do you see any plants growing on Antarctica?

Mars is utterly inhospitable to Earth plant-life. We would have to bioengineer an Antarctic lichen to feed off of the meager CO2 in the Martian atmosphere and also to withstand the more intense radiation present on the surface.

Mars is very, very cold.

Answer 3

The question is not well thought through ... hey, it is way too cold or way too hot on mars ... no plant, even if growing after all, would survive there. The ice caps are just ice, we still don't know what kind of ice. No matter what ice, it still would be way too cold (or too hot in the sun).

Answer 4

Yes, that's a great idea... but two factors might be the hindrances... (1) Nitrogen and (2) Carbon Dioxide Sources for the plants...

Answer 5

It's because the consideration is taken is Mar's gases are suitable for the plants, that it needed nutrigen and carbon dioxide and water is needed too to grow.

Answer 6

That's an excellent thought, and one presented in many good science fiction stories in the past.

I'm sure it's on somebody's drawing board somewhere. We just don't have the technology yet.

Answer 7

Too cold and no nitrogen for the plants

Answer 8

Plants require Nitrogen, wherefor is th source?

Answer 9

I think the main reason is that we haven't arrived there yet.

Answer 10

Hey that is a great idea. While we are at it, let's go and get some helium from sun.