With Bugs and Algae, One Million People Could Live in Mars Colonies

By Erika K. Carlson
Sep 25, 2019 5:02 PMNov 19, 2019 12:19 AM
Mars
(Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

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In the science fiction novel and movie The Martian, a stranded astronaut survives more than 500 days on Mars by growing potatoes. A permanent human settlement on Mars would need to do much better. And according to a computer model created by planetary scientists, that’s actually an attainable goal. With the right food sources, we could grow a million-person population on Mars that doesn’t depend on food shipped from Earth in about a hundred years, a recent paper in the journal New Space reports.

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