A fundamental challenge in human missions to Mars is producing consumable foods efficiently with the in situ resources such as soil, water, nutrients and solar radiation available on Mars. The low nutrient content of martian soil and high salinity of water render them unfit for direct use for propagating food crops on Mars. It is therefore essential to develop strategies to enhance nutrient content in Mars soil and to desalinate briny water for long-term missions on Mars. We report simple and efficient strategies for treating basaltic regolith simulant soil and briny water simulant for suitable resources for growing plants. We show that alfalfa plants grow well in a nutrient-limited basaltic regolith simulant soil and that the alfalfa biomass can be used as a biofertilizer to sustain growth and production of turnip, radish and lettuce in the basaltic regolith simulant soil. Moreover, we show that marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 effectively desalinates the briny water simulant, and that desalination can be further enhanced by filtration through basalt-type volcanic rocks. Our findings indicate that it is possible to grow food crops with alfalfa treated basaltic regolith martian soil as a substratum watered with biodesalinated water.

Development of sustainable agriculture on Mars is a critical step towards its colonisation. However, Martian regolith is coarse-grained, and its mineral profile differs significantly from that of terrestrial arable soil, resulting in poor seed germination success and stunted plant development. This study investigates whether germination success and plant growth can be improved by exposing seeds and plants to water enriched with either i) biochemically active reactive oxygen and nitrogen species generated by atmospheric pressure plasma (PAW) or (ii) nano-/micro-bubbles and minerals such as potassium and calcium extracted from Aquapulse^® feldspar (APW), a type of rock that is readily available on Mars, at different stages of the crop lifecycle. As a crop model, microgreen crops of <i>B. oleracea</i> and <i>M. sativa</i> are chosen for their short growth cycle, low resource requirements, and high nutritional value. For <i>B. oleracea</i> crops, soaking of seeds in PAW followed by irrigation with APW led to an increase in germination by ~566.7%, in biomass by 412.4%, and in chlorophyll content by 17.7% compared to crops grown using normal water for seed soaking and irrigation. For <i>M. sativa</i> crops, the use of APW for soaking and irrigation yielded an increase of 41.7% in seed germination and 45.2% in crop biomass, whereas the use of PAW for both soaking and irrigation resulted in the greatest improvement in seed germination, 41.7%, when compared to control. These results suggest that, with further optimisation, a regiment of treatment with PAW and APW in place of normal water can be used to address stage-specific challenges of the crop lifecycle in Martian regolith. As amending Martian regolith with a minimum of 1% organic matter is required to promote healthy plant development, further studies should investigate the use of plasma-mediated reforming of biowaste for in situ production of e.g., biochar.

Phenomenology of plume–surface interactions and preliminary results from the Tianwen-1 landing crater on Mars The plume–surface interaction (PSI) is a common phenomenon that describes the environment surrounding the landers resulting from the impingement of hot rocket exhaust on the regolith of planetary bodies. The PSI will cause obscuration, erosion of the planetary surface, and high-speed spreading of dust or high-energy ejecta streams, which will induce risks to a safe landing and cause damage to payloads on the landers or to nearby assets. Safe landings and the subsequent scientific goals of deep-space exploration in China call for a comprehensive understanding of the PSI process, including the plume flow mechanics, erosion mechanism, and ejecta dynamics. In addition, the landing crater caused by the plume provides a unique and insightful perspective on the understanding of PSI. In particular, the PSI can be used directly to constrain the composition, structure, and mechanical properties of the surface and subsurface soil.

Water activity (aw) quantifies the free water available for microbial growth. At the cellular level, liquid water is paramount for replication and proliferation. Research on Earth-like life suggests that microbial replication is limited by an aw threshold of ≥ 0.585, below which replication ceases. On Mars, liquid water is typically unstable, but gaseous water exchanges between the atmosphere and the upper regolith are substantial. A variety of salts widespread across the Martian surface are capable of hydration and deliquescence, including sulfates that can undergo hydration–dehydration changes when exposed to different levels of aw. This study investigates microbial growth at different aw levels in a commercially available Mojave Mars Simulant 2 (MMS-2), a fine-grade basaltic soil modified with 2-4 wt% calcium sulfate and oxides (Fe₂O₃, SiO₂, MgO, CaO) to mimic Martian regolith composition. Growth was monitored by quantifying extracted deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from samples incubated at aw 1, 0.75, 0.65, 0.34 and 0.12 under Earth-like conditions (30 °C, ≈1 bar). At aw = 1, DNA mass from MMS-2 and Bacillus subtilis-spiked MMS-2 peaked on day 15 and day 3, respectively. At lower aw levels (0.75±0.02 and 0.65±0.02), DNA mass reached its peak after 20 and 30 days, respectively. Samples incubated at aw = 0.34±0.02 exhibited reduced DNA yields, with a maximum on day 30, whereas no detectable increase in DNA occurred at aw = 0.12 ± 0.02 over 60 days. Statistical comparisons with the aw = 0.12 control were significant (e.g., aw = 0.34 ± 0.02, cleanroom vs. aw = 0.12 ± 0.02 at day 30: p = 0.0098; Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) False Discovery Rate across day 20, 30, 45: q = 0.0153). These findings suggest that atmospheric water can be adsorbed into regolith grains and salts, supporting microbial persistence and DNA accumulation consistent with possible replication at reduced water activity under Earth ambient conditions.

Chemical and physical microenvironments at the Viking landing sites. Physical and chemical considerations permit the division of the near-surface regolith on Mars into at least six zones of distinct microenvironments. The zones are euphotic, duricrust/peds, tempofrost, permafrost, endolithic, and interfacial/transitional. Microenvironments vary significantly in temperature extremes, mean temperature, salt content, relative pressure of water vapor, UV and visible light irradiance, and exposure to ionizing radiation events (100 Mrad) and oxidative molecular species. From what is known of the chemistry of the atmosphere and regolith fines (soil), limits upon the aqueous chemistry of soil pastes may be estimated. Heat of wetting could reach 45 cal/g dry soil; initial pH is indeterminate between 1 and 10; ionic strength and salinity are predicted to be extremely high; freezing point depression is inadequate to provide quantities of liquid water except in special cases. The prospects for biotic survival are grim by terrestrial standards, but the extremes of biological resiliency are inaccessible to evaluation.

support of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return, rock, regolith (Martian soil), and atmosphere samples are being cached by Perseverance. As of July 2025,[update] Perseverance is a NASA rover that has been exploring Mars since February 18, 2021, as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the car-sized rover was launched on July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas V rocket and landed in Jezero Crater, a site chosen for its ancient river delta that may preserve evidence of past microbial life. The rover's m Looking…

In recent years, there has been an increase in commercial lunar landing exploration, and in Japan, there are plans for the next exploration to be the return of samples from the surface of the Martian moon. Due to the fact that this is not a touch-and-go exploration to the surface, but rather a landing stay of several hours, it is necessary not only to land in consideration of the terrain, sunlight, and communication status, but also to overcome dynamic events that occur at the moment of landing. In such landing conditions, the primary concerns are the destruction of observation equipment due to the physical collision of scattered regolith particles and the deterioration of equipment characteristics due to particle adhesion; consequently, the prediction of particle behavior is of significant importance. This paper presents the findings through analyses that predict the behavior of regolith particles scattered in contact with a landing pad that has a kinetic energy of several hundred Joules. Subsequently, the most unfavorable conditions are identified, predicated on the disparity in the characteristics of the celestial surface layer; this analysis yields recommendations for regolith countermeasures, which are arduous to evaluate under the test constraints of low gravity and their actual dimensions.

We demonstrate that Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) can be utilized for creation of consolidates of Martian Simulant Soil (MSS) and Lunar Simulant Soil (LSS) in the form of a ‘brick’. A urease producer bacterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii, was used to induce the MICP process for the both simulant soils. An admixture of guar gum as an organic polymer and NiCl2, as bio- catalyst to enhance urease activity, was introduced to increase the compressive strength of the biologically grown bricks. A casting method was utilized for a slurry consisting of the appropriate simulant soil and mic