Algae Could be Instrumental in Making Human Exploration of Mars Possible

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

While the world is marveling over the first images and data now coming from NASA's Perseverance rover mission seeking signs of ancient microscopic life on Mars, a team of UNLV scientists is already hard at work on the next step: What if we could one day send humans to the Red Planet?

There's a lot to consider when sending people, though. Human explorers, unlike their rover counterparts, require oxygen and food, for starters. It also takes about six to nine months-both ways-just in travel time. And then there's the air itself. Martian air is roughly 98% carbon dioxide (Earth's is a fraction of 1% for comparison) and the air temperature averages an extremely frigid -81 degrees.

It's these challenges that UNLV geochemist and NASA Mars 2020 team scientist Libby Hausrath and postdoctoral researcher Leena Cycil, a microbial ecologist, are exploring. And a big part of the answer? Algae.

[...] Hausrath and Cycil are among a handful of scientists looking at growing algae under the low-pressure, low-light conditions seen on Mars, and are pursuing different species than previous studies.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.