(WS News) – Scientists are now planning to achieve the impossible, which is growing a tree on Mars.
In a new research, it has been found that carbon dioxide (CO2) needs to be jacked up on Mars to support plant growth and raise temperatures on the planet for growing trees.
The conditions needed for the growth of the plant on the Red Planet do not get created in the “tropics” of Mars.
The plan to grow trees on Mars is being led by Robert Olszewski, who is a professor at Warsaw University of Technology in Poland.
Researchers have studied the surface energy balance on the planet like the diffusive exchange of heat between evaporation and carbon dioxide condensation, transport of heat by atmospheric circulation and heat exchange with the subsurface.
“Surprisingly, the conditions that allow plant growth do not occur first within the tropics (±25°) but in the Hellas Basin region. A further increase in the greenhouse effect expands the area suitable for plant growth in the southern hemisphere,” explained the research paper.
Olszewski and his research team used Viking Mars lander temperature and pressure datasets created in the 1970s and simulated different processes on Mars.
“Here, we use the baseline model to investigate the greenhouse effect caused by an increase in CO2 plus artificial greenhouse warming,” Olszewski said in a paper presented at an “Astrobiology and the Future of Life Meeting” organised at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.
They also assessed the total pressure required on Mars, the O2 needed, a high percentage of acceptable CO2, temperatures required for tree growth and the amount of water available.
“The atmospheric conditions existing on Mars today make the existence of life impossible. The requirements for plant growth on Mars have been considered in the context of terraforming and for low-pressure greenhouses,” Olszewski said.
The research emphasised on temperature “as this is the fundamental environmental variable that changes during terraforming and it controls the CO2 cycle and the formation of liquid water,” Olszewski stated.
“Focusing on the temperature, it must be several tens of degrees higher, while the diurnal fluctuations should be much lower. For the growth of trees, the growing season must last at least 110 sols (Martian days),” stated the research.
