Medicine & TechnologyMars had a close call this past weekend as a comet passed so close to the Red Planet that NASA moved its three Mars orbiters to the opposite side of the planet hoping to shield them from the dust and gas debris left by the tail of Comet Siding Spring.
In hopes of a long future on the Red Planet, researchers have proposed the addition of a horticultural experiment onboard NASA’s next Mars rover mission, scheduled to land in 2021. The proposed project, known simply as the “Mars Plant Experiment” (MPX) would not only aid in the understanding of plant growth on foreign planets, but also would lay the foundations for future colonies currently planning on settling in on Mars.