I am allergic to soy. This could be hard for some great engineer/astronaut with a soy based protein allergy. Many are allergic to milk and milk products. Many allergic to tomatoes and tomato products. The list goes on. In the long run there has to be a large variety of foods somehow.
Quote from: spacenut on 12/27/2018 02:42 amI am allergic to soy. This could be hard for some great engineer/astronaut with a soy based protein allergy. Many are allergic to milk and milk products. Many allergic to tomatoes and tomato products. The list goes on. In the long run there has to be a large variety of foods somehow. Although in the long run a variety of foods is desirable, I suspect that in the early days anyone with a problematic allergy simply won't be going.
Fixing photosynthetic inefficienciesIn some of our most useful crops (such as rice and wheat), photosynthesis produces toxic by-products that reduce its efficiency. Photorespiration deals with these by-products, converting them into metabolically useful components, but at the cost of energy lost. South et al. constructed a metabolic pathway in transgenic tobacco plants that more efficiently recaptures the unproductive by-products of photosynthesis with less energy lost (see the Perspective by Eisenhut and Weber). In field trials, these transgenic tobacco plants were ∼40% more productive than wild-type tobacco plants.
Just interrupting the meaty conversation to bring some interesting crop news:http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6422/eaat9077QuoteFixing photosynthetic inefficienciesIn some of our most useful crops (such as rice and wheat), photosynthesis produces toxic by-products that reduce its efficiency. Photorespiration deals with these by-products, converting them into metabolically useful components, but at the cost of energy lost. South et al. constructed a metabolic pathway in transgenic tobacco plants that more efficiently recaptures the unproductive by-products of photosynthesis with less energy lost (see the Perspective by Eisenhut and Weber). In field trials, these transgenic tobacco plants were ∼40% more productive than wild-type tobacco plants.Scientists have been finding ways to make the photosynthesis process more efficient. An early attempt has achieved a 40% improvement in efficiency. Given the lower level of sunlight on Mars, things like this could make a huge difference in the economics and logistics of crop growth and viability.I wonder what genetic/metabolic changes might be sought, in order to make crop cultivation on Mars as simple and economical as possible?
C3 plants, and most cultivated plants are C3, function better in low light conditions than C4 plants. There are quite a large number of plants adapted for low light similar to Mars, they are known as shade plants and they are likely to be in a pot inside your house or office. I have not read the link yet but per the quote it seems that they grafted the photosynthetic chain of a shade plant into tobacco. Martian conditions, especially if there is dust on the greenhouse, will correspond with the kind of lighting usual in a north European greenhouse. These kind of lighting conditions are more conductive to grasses than typical crops, but at worse we can add artificial lighting
We do not have known plants able to function in low pressure, because this is not something plants run into on earth. Low pressure is seen as water stress by the plants, even if there is plentiful water
So even if there's nothing in nature that currently fills the bill, why can't we just create something new through the Darwinistic breeding approach? It shouldn't be that hard to replicate Mars conditions for that purpose.
Quote from: sanman on 01/07/2019 10:05 pmSo even if there's nothing in nature that currently fills the bill, why can't we just create something new through the Darwinistic breeding approach? It shouldn't be that hard to replicate Mars conditions for that purpose.That works in bacteria, because generation times are on the orders of minutes to hours. Not months or years like with plants.
Can China grow a flower on the moon? The countdown beginshttps://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2181971/can-china-grow-flower-moon-countdown-beginsChang'e 4 includes a mini biological lab with plants and silkworms