kind of desert moss may prove to be the future Mars colonists' companion due to its characteristics of surviving in extreme conditions that kill most life forms.
Hostile Martian Environment
Years in the future, space agencies like NASA will start off by sending human colonizers to Mars and build a permanent base afterward. However, the environment on Mars has some extreme features that pose hostile conditions for any possible human exploration and inhabitation.
It has a thin atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, but very small amounts of nitrogen and argon are present, with trace amounts of oxygen and water vapor. The atmospheric pressure of this planet is about six millibars, nearly less than one percent of Earth's 1,013 millibars at sea level.
The average surface temperature of Mars can be as low as -80°F, while in winter it can drop extremely low up to -195°F at the poles, and during summers at the equator, it rises high to reach 70°F.
Moreover, water on Mars exists overwhelmingly in the form of ice; ice and dry-ice carbon dioxide make up the polar ice caps. There is also no magnetic field on the Red Planet, which could interact with the solar wind to deflect charged particles. This exposes everything on its surface to harmful levels of cosmic radiation that could pose a serious threat to human explorers or any living material propagated in its soils.
Promising Candidate to Colonize Mars
Here on Earth, a desert moss called canines was found to grow in the most inhospitable locations, ranging from Tibet to Antarctica. Thus, it is the perfect candidate for testing under Mars conditions.
A new study simulates the conditions of the Red Planet; the results show that Syntrichia canines have the potential to survive and grow in the harsh environment on Mars.
The authors of the research describe how the desert moss had been stored at -112 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 or 5 years and at a temperature of -320 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 and 30 days. It is reported that, after defrosting, plants regenerated and grew.
It can also withstand very dry conditions and grow in temperatures as cold as -320.8 degrees Fahrenheit. If the plant had been dehydrated before freezing, it recovered faster too.
The researchers also exposed the desert moss to various doses of radiation and found that it can withstand gamma radiation levels that would be lethal to most plants and life forms. It survived and even flourished at up to 500 Gray. In comparison, human beings die of exposure to about 4 Gray.
The researchers found that Syntrichia caninervis showed environmental resilience higher than that of some highly stress-tolerant microorganisms and tardigrades. In their paper, the research team also described it as one of the most radio-resistant organisms known.
For the first time, a whole plant has been treated to space or other planet-like conditions. Its characteristics make desert moss a much more promising pioneer plant in the colonization of extraterrestrial environments, eventually allowing the founding of a biologically sustainable human habitat beyond Earth.
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