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Comment by stcredzero | Hacker News Reader

On the Cody's Lab YouTube channel, Cody did expose potato plants to Martian atmospheric pressure for short periods of time. Apparently, potato plants can survive a decompression event, so long as you get them back to an Earthlike environment promptly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8VPvBr4ppU

I doubt they could survive extended exposure, though.

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So does this mean the environment was only partially simulated? It sounds like we're assuming Martian potatoes will be grown in pressurized environments.

Given an inexpensive transparent material with very high tensile strength and resistance to weathering in the Martian environment, I could see a passive pressurization/thermal regulation scheme for greenhouses on the surface of Mars that relies only on, say, a heat source, some valves, and some consumable gasses. I could imagine such schemes using mainly water as an input.

That said, such a material would be asking for a lot. Then, there's also the UV and other radiation to consider.

Just replace/recycle it regularly.

I reckon there is value in only partially simulating the environment and grow lots of potatoes at scale. Take those potatoes that succeed and breed them and repeat. With every iteration, change the environmental conditions to better simulate Mars. Over successive generations, I reckon we can get to potatoes (and other plants) that fair well.

The big question is how you optimize this process to assist evolution in moving faster.

It will need many generations before you have a plant that can live in a natural martian environment. I don't think you'll be able to get much nutrition out of it anymore.

The less demanding the crops are, in terms of sheltering them from Mars, the cheaper they will be to grow. So it's useful, even if you don't get them to a natural Martian environment. Lowering the temperature and pressure they can grow at would still be a win.

Only if you don't lose too much yield. Look at high mountain plants on Earth, they're hardly edible and live in a much friendlier environment than Mars.

Near impossible, on Earth there are no plants in most of Antarctica. And that has more water than Mars. There is no solution that matches all the constraints.

There arent many minerals available on ice and stuff gets buried under snow quickly too.

And 'survive' is something far different than 'grow'.

Even saying they are growing doest mEan they will work, I've peeled many potatoes and they grow eyes if left long enough...in the dark too!

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