• Question: when you are up there are you planning to put plants or put anything on the planets, or maybe something living on the planets if you can.

    Asked by 955trn46 to Anne, Beth, COLFlight, Jon, Tom on 7 Oct 2015. This question was also asked by 8P form.
    • Photo: Anne Visscher

      Anne Visscher answered on 7 Oct 2015:


      Hi there,

      I am not an astronaut myself, but hopefully there will be other people in the future who can go to Mars for long-term missions. In that case, they need a life support system in which to grow food, create an atmosphere and recycle wastewater. Plants could provide all those things, so yes, it makes sense to use plants in long-term life support systems on other planets.
      Before this happens, researchers first want to find out if life is already there. For example the ExoMars Rover will be launched in a few years’ time, and hopefully that mission will teach us more about if there is life on Mars right now, or if there has been in the past.

      Anne

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