Wetland Wednesday
June 10, 2020
I was watching the SpaceX launch last week and was overjoyed at its success. It is good to be back in space! This comes from a long-standing dream as a kid to be an astronaut.
Growing up in the late 1960’s and 1970’s everybody wanted to be an astronaut. I can distinctly remember watching the Apollo space missions. Watching Neil Armstrong take his small step “for a man” was truly a “giant leap for mankind.” I think we need those far off frontiers to keep us engaged and innovative and Mars is the next frontier.
Wetlands are critical for the water cycle to work. They buffer, clean, and recycle water enabling biological activity to function. They provide habitat for many species and really were the first terrestrial ecosystem to appear as life developed on Earth. So, it would make sense if we are to colonize Mars that we need to create some wetlands up there. I would love to hang the first wetland flag on the first Martin tree.
Okay, so I might be getting a little ahead of myself, but you must start somewhere. Doing a little research on this topic, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am not the only crazy one out there. There is an organization called SynBioBeta that is dedicated to developing Synthetic Biology applications. Chief among these is Martian agriculture. The argument for this type of work comes down to simple dollars. Did you know that it costs over $10,000 to ship a can of Coke to Mars. Their idea is to develop synthetic biological crops that are adapted to be grown on Mars. This creates a tremendous cost savings as food will need to be locally sourced as opposed to being shipped in. Organizations like NASA are funding these projects.
So, what if we could create a Martian wetland system that could recycle water just like it does here on Earth. This would greatly help with the agricultural development as we would be looking at ancient farming techniques that leveraged wetland systems to increase crop production. Plus, we would get the benefit of wastewater treatment and purification of the water supply.
SynBioBeta is developing Terran prototypes that would simulate the extreme Martin environment. Perhaps we should do the same. I just happen to have a small farm near our office that might server as a prototype. It is an old tobacco field and very sandy. There are no natural water sources and it gets extremely hot in the summer. I am looking for some volunteers to help with this project. If you are looking for an outside the box project, please reach out to us. We would love to hear your ideas.