Food on Mars

This is a subtopic of the main page, Life on Mars.

The Martian settlers will eat fresh food produced on Mars. The food that came from Earth will serve only as emergency rations.

Food production will be hydroponic and happen indoor, lighted by LED lighting. By providing the plants with only the frequencies of light that they use most efficiently, power consumption is limited. Also, high efficiency plant growing methods that require much less space will be used (e.g. "PlantLab"). In total there will be about 50m² / habitat available for plant growth.

The colony will have inflatable greenhouses and use water from the Martian soil and nitrogen from the atmosphere to grow crops. The crew will cultivate rice, algae and insects for their high protein content and will also likely grow mushrooms, along with tomatoes and other plants.