NASA scientists are working ahead towards actual Mars Gardens to see what plants future astronauts may be able to grow on the red planet when they land there. This is to enable them to grow some of their own food on a longer mission so that they don’t have to carry everything they need to eat with them. The scientists have been growing different plants under Mars atmosphere like conditions to get an idea of how a possible garden should be cultivated on the planet.

The researchers have already experimented with growing plants in space by having gardening projects on the International Space Station. They have been able to identify which plants do well in space. Now NASA wants to check out just how Mars would affect Earth plants. This is difficult to do as the soil on Earth is full of organic material and is loose. The soil on Mars is volcanic in nature and is more like crushed rocks.

A preliminary experiment conducted by Florida Tech Buzz Aldrin Space Institute has established that lettuce grown in Mars like soil taken from Hawaii tasted the same, but had looser roots and a much slower germination rate. So basically this science project lets us know that your BLT make take longer to grow on Mars!