Growing Plants on Mars-Potential and Limitations of Martian Regolith for In-Situ Resource Utilization
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Planting and Germination of Sweet Potato, Yam and Radish Plants in the Mars Desert Research Station
Copyright © 2015 by Olenka Jibaja Valderrama. Published by The Mars Society with permission. Planting and Germination of Sweet Potato, Yam and Radish Plants in the Mars Desert Research Station Olenka Jibaja Valderrama Universidad Católica Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo – Chiclayo, Perú [email protected] Abstract: As part of the future exploration of the universe, manned missions to other planets or satellites near Earth will be needed. One of the main objectives of these missions will be to reach Mars because it is at a relatively close distance to our planet and because both planets have some common characteristics. Since the economic investment of these explorations is quite high, the duration of them must be significant; that’s why the missions should aim to be self-sufficient. The search for food sources for crew members is a key factor to be investigated and even more attention should be on food whose production is possible and sustainable in the environment where the mission arises. This work was involved with the planting and germination of radish, yam and sweet potato plants in the greenhouse of the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) and the main objective was to investigate the characteristics of growth and development of these plants in Martian conditions to find out whether its production is possible or not. Orange skin and white skin: two types of sweet potatoes were planted. During rotation, it was discovered that yam grew faster under these conditions than the rest of the tubers, although its development was slower as compared to terrestrial conditions. Radish plants in Mars regolith grew in a similar speed than in the fertile Earth soil, and even faster than in drier soil taken from the desert. -
Volcanism on Mars
Author's personal copy Chapter 41 Volcanism on Mars James R. Zimbelman Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA William Brent Garry and Jacob Elvin Bleacher Sciences and Exploration Directorate, Code 600, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA David A. Crown Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA Chapter Outline 1. Introduction 717 7. Volcanic Plains 724 2. Background 718 8. Medusae Fossae Formation 725 3. Large Central Volcanoes 720 9. Compositional Constraints 726 4. Paterae and Tholi 721 10. Volcanic History of Mars 727 5. Hellas Highland Volcanoes 722 11. Future Studies 728 6. Small Constructs 723 Further Reading 728 GLOSSARY shield volcano A broad volcanic construct consisting of a multitude of individual lava flows. Flank slopes are typically w5, or less AMAZONIAN The youngest geologic time period on Mars identi- than half as steep as the flanks on a typical composite volcano. fied through geologic mapping of superposition relations and the SNC meteorites A group of igneous meteorites that originated on areal density of impact craters. Mars, as indicated by a relatively young age for most of these caldera An irregular collapse feature formed over the evacuated meteorites, but most importantly because gases trapped within magma chamber within a volcano, which includes the potential glassy parts of the meteorite are identical to the atmosphere of for a significant role for explosive volcanism. Mars. The abbreviation is derived from the names of the three central volcano Edifice created by the emplacement of volcanic meteorites that define major subdivisions identified within the materials from a centralized source vent rather than from along a group: S, Shergotty; N, Nakhla; C, Chassigny. -
Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover Curiosity’S Mission: Was Mars Ever Habitable? Acquires Rock, Soil, and Air Samples for Onboard Analysis
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover www.nasa.gov Curiosity’s Mission: Was Mars Ever Habitable? acquires rock, soil, and air samples for onboard analysis. Quick Facts Curiosity is about the size of a small car and about as Part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, Launch — Nov. 26, 2011 from Cape Canaveral, tall as a basketball player. Its large size allows the rover Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever Florida, on an Atlas V-541 to carry an advanced kit of 10 science instruments. sent to Mars. Curiosity’s mission is to answer the Arrival — Aug. 6, 2012 (UTC) Among Curiosity’s tools are 17 cameras, a laser to question: did Mars ever have the right environmental Prime Mission — One Mars year, or about 687 Earth zap rocks, and a drill to collect rock samples. These all conditions to support small life forms called microbes? days (~98 weeks) help in the hunt for special rocks that formed in water Taking the next steps to understand Mars as a possible and/or have signs of organics. The rover also has Main Objectives place for life, Curiosity builds on an earlier “follow the three communications antennas. • Search for organics and determine if this area of Mars was water” strategy that guided Mars missions in NASA’s ever habitable for microbial life Mars Exploration Program. Besides looking for signs of • Characterize the chemical and mineral composition of Ultra-High-Frequency wet climate conditions and for rocks and minerals that ChemCam Antenna rocks and soil formed in water, Curiosity also seeks signs of carbon- Mastcam MMRTG • Study the role of water and changes in the Martian climate over time based molecules called organics. -
Resource Utilization and Site Selection for a Self-Sufficient Martian Outpost
NASA/TM-98-206538 Resource Utilization and Site Selection for a Self-Sufficient Martian Outpost G. James, Ph.D. G. Chamitoff, Ph.D. D. Barker, M.S., M.A. April 1998 The NASA STI Program Office... in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific and the advancement of aeronautics and space technical findings by NASA-sponsored science. The NASA Scientific and Technical contractors and grantees. Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part in helping NASA maintain this important CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. Collected role. papers from scientific and technical confer- ences, symposia, seminars, or other meetings The NASA STI Program Office is operated by sponsored or cosponsored by NASA. Langley Research Center, the lead center for NASA's scientific and technical information. SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, The NASA STI Program Office provides access technical, or historical information from to the NASA STI Database, the largest NASA programs, projects, and mission, often collection of aeronautical and space science STI concerned with subjects having substantial in the word. The Program Office is also public interest. NASA's institutional mechanism for disseminating the results of its research and • TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. development activities. These results are English-language translations of foreign scientific published by NASA in the NASA STI Report and technical material pertinent to NASA's Series, which includes the following report mission. types: Specialized services that complement the STI TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of Program Office's diverse offerings include completed research or a major significant creating custom thesauri, building customized phase of research that present the results of databases, organizing and publishing research NASA programs and include extensive results.., even providing videos. -
16. Ice in the Martian Regolith
16. ICE IN THE MARTIAN REGOLITH S. W. SQUYRES Cornell University S. M. CLIFFORD Lunar and Planetary Institute R. O. KUZMIN V.I. Vernadsky Institute J. R. ZIMBELMAN Smithsonian Institution and F. M. COSTARD Laboratoire de Geographie Physique Geologic evidence indicates that the Martian surface has been substantially modified by the action of liquid water, and that much of that water still resides beneath the surface as ground ice. The pore volume of the Martian regolith is substantial, and a large amount of this volume can be expected to be at tem- peratures cold enough for ice to be present. Calculations of the thermodynamic stability of ground ice on Mars suggest that it can exist very close to the surface at high latitudes, but can persist only at substantial depths near the equator. Impact craters with distinctive lobale ejecta deposits are common on Mars. These rampart craters apparently owe their morphology to fluidhation of sub- surface materials, perhaps by the melting of ground ice, during impact events. If this interpretation is correct, then the size frequency distribution of rampart 523 524 S. W. SQUYRES ET AL. craters is broadly consistent with the depth distribution of ice inferred from stability calculations. A variety of observed Martian landforms can be attrib- uted to creep of the Martian regolith abetted by deformation of ground ice. Global mapping of creep features also supports the idea that ice is present in near-surface materials at latitudes higher than ± 30°, and suggests that ice is largely absent from such materials at lower latitudes. Other morphologic fea- tures on Mars that may result from the present or former existence of ground ice include chaotic terrain, thermokarst and patterned ground. -
Surface Residence Times of Regolith on the Lunar Maria
52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2021 (LPI Contrib. No. 2548) 1652.pdf 1 1 SURFACE RESIDENCE TIMES OF REGOLITH ON THE LUNAR MARIA. P. O’Brien and S. Byrne , 1 L unar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 ([email protected]) Introduction: The surfaces of airless bodies like Our model simulates mare-like surfaces evolving the Moon undergo microscopic chemical changes as a over time from flat surfaces to cratered landscapes. result of energetic processes operating in the space Impacts are randomly sampled from the present-day environment, collectively known as space weathering lunar impact flux [5] and the global population of [1,2]. Despite returned lunar soil samples, the rate of secondary craters produced by these impacts is space weathering on the Moon is not well understood. generated following empirical observations of The amount of chemical weathering incurred in the secondary production on airless bodies [6,7]. At each lunar regolith depends critically on the rate at which timestep, we compute the downslope flux of regolith regolith is excavated, transported, and buried by by solving the 2D diffusion equation [8]. The rate of macroscopic impact processes. These physical diffusion is calibrated by matching the average processes control how long regolith spends on the roughness of the model landscapes to the observed surface where it is exposed to the space environment. roughness of the lunar maria, as measured by the We have developed a Monte Carlo model that median bidirectional slope at 4 m baselines [9]. Figure simulates the evolution of lunar maria landscapes 1 shows how model surfaces subject to these physical under topographic relief-creation from impact cratering processes become rougher and more heavily-cratered and relief-reduction from micrometeorite gardening over time. -
Planetary Science
Mission Directorate: Science Theme: Planetary Science Theme Overview Planetary Science is a grand human enterprise that seeks to discover the nature and origin of the celestial bodies among which we live, and to explore whether life exists beyond Earth. The scientific imperative for Planetary Science, the quest to understand our origins, is universal. How did we get here? Are we alone? What does the future hold? These overarching questions lead to more focused, fundamental science questions about our solar system: How did the Sun's family of planets, satellites, and minor bodies originate and evolve? What are the characteristics of the solar system that lead to habitable environments? How and where could life begin and evolve in the solar system? What are the characteristics of small bodies and planetary environments and what potential hazards or resources do they hold? To address these science questions, NASA relies on various flight missions, research and analysis (R&A) and technology development. There are seven programs within the Planetary Science Theme: R&A, Lunar Quest, Discovery, New Frontiers, Mars Exploration, Outer Planets, and Technology. R&A supports two operating missions with international partners (Rosetta and Hayabusa), as well as sample curation, data archiving, dissemination and analysis, and Near Earth Object Observations. The Lunar Quest Program consists of small robotic spacecraft missions, Missions of Opportunity, Lunar Science Institute, and R&A. Discovery has two spacecraft in prime mission operations (MESSENGER and Dawn), an instrument operating on an ESA Mars Express mission (ASPERA-3), a mission in its development phase (GRAIL), three Missions of Opportunities (M3, Strofio, and LaRa), and three investigations using re-purposed spacecraft: EPOCh and DIXI hosted on the Deep Impact spacecraft and NExT hosted on the Stardust spacecraft. -
NASA Spacecraft Nears Encounter with Dwarf Planet Ceres 4 March 2015
NASA spacecraft nears encounter with dwarf planet Ceres 4 March 2015 of 590 miles (950 kilometers), makes a full rotation every nine hours, and NASA is hoping for a wealth of data once the spacecraft's orbit begins. "Dawn is about to make history," said Robert Mase, project manager for the Dawn mission at NASA JPL in Pasadena, California. "Our team is ready and eager to find out what Ceres has in store for us." Experts will be looking for signs of geologic activity, via changes in these bright spots, or other features on Ceres' surface over time. The latest images came from Dawn when it was 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) away on February 25. This image was taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft of dwarf planet Ceres on February 19, 2015 from a The celestial body was first spotted by Sicilian distance of nearly 29,000 miles astronomer Father Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. "Ceres was initially classified as a planet and later called an asteroid. In recognition of its planet-like A NASA spacecraft called Dawn is about to qualities, Ceres was designated a dwarf planet in become the first mission to orbit a dwarf planet 2006, along with Pluto and Eris," NASA said. when it slips into orbit Friday around Ceres, the most massive body in the asteroid belt. Ceres is named after the Roman goddess of agriculture and harvests. The mission aims to shed light on the origins of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, from its "rough The spacecraft on its way to circle it was launched and tumble environment of the main asteroid belt in September 2007. -
Soil, Regolith, and Weathered Rock Theoretical Concepts and Evolution
Geoderma 368 (2020) 114261 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoderma journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoderma Soil, regolith, and weathered rock: Theoretical concepts and evolution in T old-growth temperate forests, Central Europe ⁎ Pavel Šamonila,b, , Jonathan Phillipsa,c, Pavel Daněka,d, Vojtěch Beneše, Lukasz Pawlika,f a Department of Forest Ecology, The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Lidická 25/27, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic b Department of Forest Botany, Dendrology and Geobiocoenology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic c Earth Surface Systems Program, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA d Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic e G IMPULS Praha Ltd., Czech Republic f University of Silesia, Faculty of Earth Sciences, ul. Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Handling Editor: Alberto Agnelli Evolution of weathering profiles (WP) is critical for landscape evolution, soil formation, biogeochemical cycles, Keywords: and critical zone hydrology and ecology. Weathering profiles often include soil or solum (O, A, E, and Bhor- Soil evolution izons), non-soil regolith (including soil C horizons, saprolite), and weathered rock. Development of these is a Saprolite function of weathering at the bedrock weathering front to produce weathered rock; weathering at the boundary Weathering front between regolith and weathered rock to produce saprolite, and pedogenesis to convert non-soil regolith to soil. Hillslope processes Relative thicknesses of soil (Ts), non-soil regolith (Tr) and weathered rock (Tw) can provide insight into the Geophysical research relative rates of these processes at some sites with negligible surface removals or deposition. -
A Review of Sample Analysis at Mars-Evolved Gas Analysis Laboratory Analog Work Supporting the Presence of Perchlorates and Chlorates in Gale Crater, Mars
minerals Review A Review of Sample Analysis at Mars-Evolved Gas Analysis Laboratory Analog Work Supporting the Presence of Perchlorates and Chlorates in Gale Crater, Mars Joanna Clark 1,* , Brad Sutter 2, P. Douglas Archer Jr. 2, Douglas Ming 3, Elizabeth Rampe 3, Amy McAdam 4, Rafael Navarro-González 5,† , Jennifer Eigenbrode 4 , Daniel Glavin 4 , Maria-Paz Zorzano 6,7 , Javier Martin-Torres 7,8, Richard Morris 3, Valerie Tu 2, S. J. Ralston 2 and Paul Mahaffy 4 1 GeoControls Systems Inc—Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA 2 Jacobs JETS Contract at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA; [email protected] (B.S.); [email protected] (P.D.A.J.); [email protected] (V.T.); [email protected] (S.J.R.) 3 NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA; [email protected] (D.M.); [email protected] (E.R.); [email protected] (R.M.) 4 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; [email protected] (A.M.); [email protected] (J.E.); [email protected] (D.G.); [email protected] (P.M.) 5 Institito de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City 04510, Mexico; [email protected] 6 Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), Torrejon de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] 7 Department of Planetary Sciences, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK; [email protected] 8 Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC-UGR), Armilla, 18100 Granada, Spain Citation: Clark, J.; Sutter, B.; Archer, * Correspondence: [email protected] P.D., Jr.; Ming, D.; Rampe, E.; † Deceased 28 January 2021. -
Developing Glassy Magnets from Simulated Composition of Moon/Mars Regolith for Exploration Applications
Developing Glassy Magnets from simulated Composition of Moon/Mars Regolith for Exploration Applications C. S. Ray1, N. Ramachandran2 and J. Rogers1 1Exploration Science and Technology Division 2BAE SYSTEMS Analytical Solutions Inc. Science and Technology Directorate NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL 35812 ABSTRACT The feasibility of preparing glasses and developing glass-ceramic materials that display magnetic characteristics using the simulated compositions of Lunar and Martian regoliths have been demonstrated. The reported results are preliminary at this time, and are part of a larger on- going research activity at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) with an overall goal aimed at (i) developing glass, ceramic and glass-ceramic type materials from the Lunar and Martian soil compositions in their respective simulated atmospheric conditions, (ii) exploring the potential application areas of these materials through extensive materials characterization, and (iii) further improving the related materials properties through a variation of the processing methods. This research activity is an important component of NASA’s current space exploration program, which encourages feasibility studies for materials development using in situ resources on planetary bodies to meet the technological and scientific needs of future human habitats on these extra terrestrial outposts. This paper presents an overview of this on-going work at NASA (MSFC) and reports on a few selected results obtained to date. INTRODUCTION The long-term space exploration goals of NASA include developing human habitats and conducting scientific investigations on planetary bodies, especially on Moon and Mars. In-situ resource processing and utilization on planetary bodies, therefore, is recognized as an important and integral part of NASA’s space exploration program [1], since it can minimize (or eliminate) the level of up-mass (transporting materials from earth to the planetary bodies) and, hence, can substantially reduce the overall work-load and costs of exploration missions. -
Organic Material on Ceres: Insights from Visible and Infrared Space Observations
life Article Organic Material on Ceres: Insights from Visible and Infrared Space Observations Andrea Raponi 1,* , Maria Cristina De Sanctis 1, Filippo Giacomo Carrozzo 1 , Mauro Ciarniello 1 , Batiste Rousseau 1 , Marco Ferrari 1 , Eleonora Ammannito 2, Simone De Angelis 1, Vassilissa Vinogradoff 3, Julie C. Castillo-Rogez 4, Federico Tosi 1, Alessandro Frigeri 1 , Michelangelo Formisano 1 , Francesca Zambon 1, Carol A. Raymond 4 and Christopher T. Russell 5 1 Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica–Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, 00133 Rome, Italy; [email protected] (M.C.D.S.); fi[email protected] (F.G.C.); [email protected] (M.C.); [email protected] (B.R.); [email protected] (M.F.); [email protected] (S.D.A.); [email protected] (F.T.); [email protected] (A.F.); [email protected] (M.F.); [email protected] (F.Z.) 2 Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, 00133 Rome, Italy; [email protected] 3 Physique des Interactions Ioniques et Moléculaires, PIIM, Université d’Aix-Marseille, 13013 Marseille, France; [email protected] 4 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; [email protected] (J.C.C.-R.); [email protected] (C.A.R.) 5 Earth Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The NASA/Dawn mission has acquired unprecedented measurements of the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, the composition of which is a mixture of ultra-carbonaceous material, phyllosilicates, carbonates, organics, Fe-oxides, and volatiles as determined by remote sensing instruments including the VIR imaging spectrometer.