Have you ever wondered what we would all eat if mankind ever colonized Mars? Great Stuff Hydroponicsaims to shed some light on how we would grow food without soil or even a breathable atmosphere.
Hydroponics is the name given to techniques used for growing vegetation here on Earth without planting it in soil. These techniques are not new, dating back to the hanging gardens of Babylon, however the nutrient solutions which are fed to the roots in place of soil are becoming more and more scientifically sophisticated all the time.
Water is used to carry nutrient solutions to the roots of the plants, so that they can take in as many or as few of the nutrients as they need. Plants grown hydroponically are almost always grown indoors, in greenhouses, so that their environment can be strictly controlled. The amounts of water, nutrients and light they receive can be measured, and plants grown using hydroponic techniques only use 1/20th of the amount of water which would be necessary to grow and irrigate the same crop outdoors.
Because there is no soil involved, there are very few potential contaminants to the crop; pest problems are reduced and so are all soil borne diseases. Plants are therefore healthier and, because their roots are visible and their environment is easy to control, they can always be studied so that these growing methods can be improved.
Hydroponic techniques have already been used to produce food in some of the most inhospitable parts of the planet, notably giving the US military the means to station its personnel on Wake Island in the Pacific during the second world war. A barren place, the island could produce nothing edible without the use of hydroponics. A more modern example is that of Antarctica. Hundreds of scientists and researchers at the McMurdo station in Antarctica would quickly go hungry were it not for the food produced hydroponically in the enormous greenhouse situated there.
In order to increase productivity in hydroponic growth, plants can also have high levels of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere around them, which they can then use to sustain themselves in a chemical process known as photosynthesis. This process takes place inside the plant, leading to plant growth. The use of bright, specialist hydroponic lighting can also increase productivity by speeding up the photosynthesis reaction, or lengthening the daylight hours available to the plant. This is particularly important in Antarctica, where the winter months are characterized by uninterrupted darkness, which would normally kill off any living vegetation.
Commercial use of hydroponics is booming and Nasa has already experimented extensively with hydroponic growth methods. It is predicted that these techniques which have allowed humans to survive in some of the harshest climates known on Earth, will be adapted for growing food in controlled environments on space missions and perhaps even for human colonization of other planets.
For now though, hydroponics is used mainly by interested individuals as a hobby or experiment and as a way of growing their favourite flowers or fresh fruits and vegetables out of season at home..
